This Week in the Mercury
Geek
Friday, February 3, 2012
Geek Tomorrow at TFAW: Ladies Night Drink and Draw
Posted by Alison Hallett on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 5:14 PM
One thing I really enjoy about Portland's comic book community is how gender-balanced it is; there are plenty of women involved in all aspects of the industry, from editors to creators. For a hint of the diversity on display, take last night's pair of First Thursday openings: Natalie Nourigat and Emi Lenox presented charming autobiographical comics at Floating World, while a few blocks away at the Sequential Art Gallery, Carolyn Main offered up a mixed-media exhibit of poop jokes and elaborately illustrated penises.
Tomorrow night, the Hollywood Things from Another World is hosting a women-only Drink and Draw event, which will be kicked off by a panel Q&A with a lineup of "notable local women connected to the comics industry" including Colleen Coover (Gingerbread Girl), Kelly Sue DeConnick (Supergirl), Cat Farris (Legend of Larsha 2), Emi Lenox (Emitown), Jen Van Meter (Avengers Solo), and Dark Horse Comics Executive Editor Diana Schutz, and me. (I'm super outclassed by all of these women, but nonetheless pleased to get a chance to talk about the Merc's comics coverage and Comics Underground, and also to have my name on a poster with She Hulk.)
Anyway, that's from 7-9 pm. Any women interested in drinking, drawing, listening, or mingling are welcome to attend—free beer and wine with ID. If any Blogtown readers show up, say hi!
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Geek / Events Rubik's Cube Class
Posted by Courtney Ferguson on Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 3:14 PM
Mark your calendars! You know you always wanted to be that gal at the party who whips a Rubik's Cube out of her pants and solves it in a minute flat. What, you avoid that chick? That's crazy talk. The fine geeks over at Cloud Cap Games wanna teach you how to pull a pretty party trick with a free Cube-solving class.
From the press release:
It may seem daunting, but there's a method to the madness. In this 2-hour class you'll learn a no-fail approach for solving any Rubik's Cube. "Rather than simply walking you through the steps of solving the cube, which can be hard to memorize, my approach is to explain its inner logic so you truly understand the solution. It takes patience and persistence, but anyone can learn to unlock the secrets of the cube," says Hannah Kane, instructor.
Saturday, Febuary 18
Cloud Cap Games (1226 SE Lexington)
2-4 pm, free, 12+ (adults welcome), sign up in advance
BYORC
Soon enough, this'll be you, wearing your smarty pants.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Geek Hellboy Summer Camp!
Posted by Alison Hallett on Tue, Jan 24, 2012 at 10:14 AM
Dark Horse Comics and Trackers Earth just announced a Hellboy-themed summer camp in Portland this summer, wherein campers will "join an elite team of paranormal investigators combating the forces of darkness from all across the globe," and learn such "essential survival skills such as shelter building, stealth, and tactical and martial-arts training."
Ages 11—13 and 14—17: Older recruits also investigate nearby “haunts,” then finally travel to Camp Trackers near Sandy, Oregon, to investigate reports of dark figures and strange happenings at the remnants of the old, defunct town of Marmot. Here they search for a legendary and lost pioneer cemetery (true story) to ask local specters and spirits about the town’s history and the legend of Adolph Aschoff, the man who is said to have sealed away an ancient evil upon the founding of the town.
Wednesday—Friday Overnight: Older recruits culminate their week with a two-night stay at Camp Trackers’ outdoor wilderness site in Sandy, Oregon. This is the perfect opportunity to focus on many of the skills taught at the camp.
The B.P.R.D. Training Camp includes:• Tactical training
• Survival in any environment
• Martial arts and self-defense specific to preternatural entities
• Hand-to-hand weaponry (foam swords, bows, and more)
• Investigation and forensics
• Folklore and mythology
• Potions and charms 101
• Telepathy training
• Gadgets of the occult: EMF detectors, polarized lenses, and other paranormal investigative gear
• Comparative analogy and physiology of monsters
• Construction of your own quality foam swords and training weapons
• Meeting with the artists of the comic book that documents the adventures of the B.P.R.D.
• Bureau history and paranormal research
No word yet on whether one of the camp counselors is Roger the Homunculus. It's a little spendy (maybe? I actually have no frame of reference for kid stuff), but sounds pretty fun—more details here.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Geek / Games Prepare for the Biggest Nerd Fight Since the Battle of the Five Armies
Posted by Erik Henriksen on Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 3:12 PM
- god community i love you so much
The New York Times has an article about dweebery supply company Wizards of the Coast's attempts to make Dungeons & Dragons into something people actually want to play again. Their plan for how to bring it back to life: Asking hundreds of thousands of jilted, opinionated nerds to turn off Skyrim and instead weigh in on what the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons will be like. I'm guessing that if they think this is going to work they have never read a comment thread on the internet.
On Monday, Wizards of the Coast, the Hasbro subsidiary that owns the game, announced that a new edition is under development, the first overhaul of the rules since the contentious fourth edition was released in 2008. And Dungeons & Dragons’ designers are also planning to undertake an exceedingly rare effort for the gaming industry over the next few months: asking hundreds of thousands of fans to tell them how exactly they should reboot the franchise.The game “is a unique entertainment experience because it’s crafted by the players at the table, and every gaming session is different,” said Liz Schuh, who directs publishing and licensing for Dungeons & Dragons. “We want to take that idea of the players crafting that experience to the next level and say: ‘Help us craft the rules. Help us craft how this game is played.’”
I'm not exactly sure crowdsourcing a game will make for the most unique or coherent experience, but then, I'm not exactly an expert, either: I've drunkenly played old-school, tabletop Dungeons & Dragons exactly once, and even though that Community episode made me want to give it another go, that might say more about me wanting to hang out with everybody on Community than it does about me wanting to spend hours filling out spreadsheets of player attributes. That said, I know of one sure-fire way to make sure this reboot works: Once the nerds have stopped angrily squabbling over exactly how many hit points a dwarf gets when he uses an enchanted arrow to strike a gelatinous cube, you box the whole thing up and have James Franco do the TV ads. I'm pretty sure that handsome son of a bitch could convince anybody D&D is worth trying.
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Geek At Long Last, Chess As It Was Meant to be Played
Posted by Erik Henriksen on Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 12:13 PM
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Geek / Games Lord of the Rings Pub Quiz
Posted by Courtney Ferguson on Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 1:44 PM
It's the eye of the Sauron, it's the thrill of the fight, rising up to the challenge of our rival.
Yep, tonight marks the 120th anniversary of J.R.R. Tolkien's birth, so the fine folks at Pub Quiz USA are hosting a two-hour-long pub quiz about all things Middle-earth. Have you read The Silmarillion? Good on ya! Do you speak Elvish? Then get your hairy toes on down to the Prancing Pony (AKA Biddy McGraw's) for the fellowship of the pub quiz.
Lord of the Rings Pub Quiz
tonight @ Biddy McGraw's, 6000 NE Glisan
7 pm, $3 per person, teams not to exceed six members, cash prizes
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Geek / Books / Film This Hobbit Trailer Actually Exists.
Posted by Erik Henriksen on Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 8:59 AM
I still have the battered paperback copy of The Hobbit that my aunt gave me when I was nine or ten—the edition that was lushly illustrated by Michael Hague, with my particular copy inscribed at the front by my aunt in blue ink: "I hope you enjoy your trip to Middle-earth. Happy birthday." I read that book so many times—and studied its illustrations so intently—that I've probably got it memorized.
So it took me a minute or two, watching this trailer, for it to hit me that, holy shit, after the years of talk and all the legal and financial back-and-forth and the switching of directors and etc., The Hobbit is actually a real movie that's going to come out and I will watch it. That is—for me, at least, and for a lot of other people whose aunts or uncles or parents or friends gave them copies of The Hobbit when they were young and impressionable and the perfect age for a first expedition to Middle-earth—kind of an amazing thing. I guess what I'm saying is that when this thing went online last night, I watched it about 20 times, and then I sent the link to my aunt.
HD here.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Geek / TV Long-Lost Doctor Who Episodes Found
Posted by Melanie "The Intern" Johnson on Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 12:14 PM
- RadioTimes.com
- It turns out Matt Smith was not the first Doctor with a penchant for hats.
Well, this is interesting!
Every year, the British Film Institute holds a “Lost and Presumed Wiped” event. It highlights the fact that, in the 1970s, the BBC exercised a  policy of recording over their own archives after a certain period of time—they would lose the right to air them, or they would assume no one would want to rewatch them, or they would just need extra tapes, but for whatever reason, the Powers That Be figured no one would want to watch decade old episodes of Doctor Who, and they would wipe the originals.
Of the 253 episodes of Doctor Who broadcast between 1963 and 1969, 108 are missing from the archives and thought to have been wiped. (I just linked to Doctor Who's lost episode Wikipedia article, but the entire parent article about the practice of archive wiping worldwide is pretty interesting, if that's your sort of thing.) Patrick Troughton's run as the Second Doctor was hit the hardest by the wipings, and only low quality, silent clips of the Doctor's first regeneration (changing the character from William Hartwell's First Doctor to Troughton's Second) have been located at this time. (It should be noted that audio recordings of all the lost episodes exists, but only thanks to the enthusiasm of the show's geeky fans at the time.)
So! 108 episodes lost, with only two full episodes located in the time since the '90s. And then, Who fans woke up this week and there were two more.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Geek / Film New Men in Black 3 Trailer!
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 10:44 AM
I have no memory of Men in Black 2 (hmm... I wonder if there's a good reason for that?). However! Men in Black 3 looks pretty moderately awwwwwwwwesome. Here's the new trailer.
The only thing this trailer is missing is this.
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Thursday, December 8, 2011
Geek / Film / Music Here's That Autobot Ukelele You Ordered!
Posted by Erik Henriksen on Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 11:29 AM
- Etsy, via ComicsAlliance
Oh, and you guys heard about those Transformers IV and V rumors, right? Okay, cool. Just checking.
#autobotukelele
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Geek / TV How Does This Picture Make You Feel?
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 10:58 AM
From Zap2It:
Glee Cast member Matthew Morrison recently appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" where he gave a little more info [on the upcoming Chewbacca episode], saying that this is "a throwback and a tribute to 'The Star Wars Holiday Special' and the 'Judy Garland Christmas Special.'"
Sooooooooooo...
Monday, December 5, 2011
Geek Bashing Jurassic Park: Grounds for Banning?
Posted by Alison Hallett on Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 1:59 PM
Geek / Film A Trailer for Cabin in the Woods? Wha? Huh? Really?
Posted by Erik Henriksen on Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 11:44 AM
I'm still not entirely convinced that The Cabin in the Woods is actually going to come out, as advertised, on April 13; the film's been rotting on a shelf at MGM for approximately 4,000 years. Directed by Buffy and Cloverfield writer Drew Goddard, the film stars Thor's Chris Hemsworth (Cabin's been sitting on a shelf since before Hemsworth was cast as Thor, to give you some idea of its age) and that kid who played Xander 2.0 on Dollhouse; at first, it looks to be yet another entry in the boring fictional-teenagers-get-slaughtered-for-real-life-teenagers'-entertainment genre.
HOWEVER. This trailer? It's kind of badass and weird and surprising, and while I suspect it shows too much—this seems, already, like a movie that's better the less you know going in—it definitely raises expectations. I'm really looking forward to this thing. Provided, you know, it comes out, and this isn't all a particularly malicious prank on overly patient Whedon obsessives.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Geek / TV Public Service Announcement: Spaced Now on Netflix Instant
Posted by Erik Henriksen on Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 11:14 AM
Add it, watch it, love it. It's from Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jessica Hynes, and a ton of other insanely talented British people. Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World... none of these things would have happened without Spaced. Do it. You are welcome.
(Here's where I would have embedded this Spaced clip if YouTube would let me.)
Thanks to Ryan Gallagher for the heads up.
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Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Geek / Artsy Aliens on Ice: A Heart-Bursting Holiday Spectacular
Posted by Erik Henriksen on Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 12:59 PM
I was going to be all grumpy about a dude playing Ripley but then I saw there's also a dude playing Newt and since I found that to be hilarious, never mind, I guess.
Via Topless Robot.
Geek / SEX / TV So There's Totally a Buffy Porno
Posted by Erik Henriksen on Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 9:44 AM
- Fleshbot
- Buffy, Xander, and Willow: THEY ARE TOTALLY GOING TO DO IT.
Much like that Star Trek: The Next Generation porn, it appears there's currently a XXX version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in production, and Fleshbot has some pictures. (That link, I probably don't need to tell you, is pretty NSFW.)
While I've been content with the Buffy Season Eight (and now Nine!) comics from Dark Horse (not to mention the truly excellent Angel & Faith series), it should be noted, I suppose, that those books do not contain graphic depictions of sexual intercourse between various beloved TV characters. So—at least if the ever-worrisome internet is to be believed—there's a hole in the market that's just waiting to be filled. (SORRY. WHAT. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO WRITE ABOUT THIS.)
Look. I do not know how to feel about any of this. But here's your porn, obsessive Joss Whedon obsessives! Try not to get too worked up about the possibility of a Firefly one if Buffy makes enough money.
Also, I cannot for the life of me figure out why it took so long for this to happen. In retrospect, it seems so obvious. So very, very obvious.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Geek / Games This Is The Only Holiday Game Sale I'm Going To Mention, I Promise
Posted by Earnest "Nex" Cavalli on Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 4:49 PM
- Atari
- If I remember right, I never fought this dude. Instead, we had a lovely chat about elven bones.
You know BioWare, right? The people behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age? If you came into gaming recently, your mind likely defines the developer by these two series, but if you were a fan of videogames at the turn of the century, you may have even better reasons to be a fan of BioWare's work.
Specifically, I'm talking about the games the company (and its various offshoots) developed when they had access to the Dungeons & Dragons license. Icewind Dale, Temple of Elemental Evil, Planescape: Torment and, most crucially, Baldur's Gate. All of these series' are textbook examples of how to properly create Western-style roleplaying games, and straight up, Baldur's Gate II is arguably the finest RPG ever made.
So here's the good news: A few minutes ago I got an email from Atari (the current D&D rightsholder) announcing a new collection that includes every game released in each of the aforementioned series', along with all of their expansion packs. Even better, the whole collection (appropriately, verbosely dubbed "Dungeons & Dragons Anthology: The Master Collection") is only $20. No hyperbole; that's something like 700+ hours of gameplay for the price of a pretentious hamburger.
If you dig what BioWare has been doing lately and own a PC made sometime in the last decade, this should really be on your shopping list. Honestly, it's worth the price of admission for Minsc and Boo alone.
Dunno what that means? Buy the collection here and learn why a miniature giant space hamster is the greatest character BioWare has ever created.
Geek LEGO Picard
Posted by Alison Hallett on Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 2:22 PM
Maybe you made it to Captain Picard Day at Floating World Comics on Friday, a small but well-attended art show based on a similar event held on the Enterprise. (And if you didn't, don't worry—proprietor Jason Leivian says another event is planned for "the actual Picard Day," June 16.)
I dropped by Floating World over my lunch break (on my way to Ground Kontrol—working downtown is kinda the best), and Jason showed off an art submission he received too late to include in the show:
Deconstructed after the jump.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Geek / ?!?!? The Best Sentence You Will Read All Day.
Posted by Alison Hallett on Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 2:44 PM
From the National Post
Mounties are investigating three B.C. teenage boys who posed as underage girls online, lured men to meet them for sex then confronted the accused sexual predators dressed as superheroes.
!!!
This dude seems remarkably unfazed by having Batman approach his car window. It is true, though, that Batman hates pedophiles.
via Kiala
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Monday, November 14, 2011
Geek / Film BBC Announces Doctor Who Movie, Terrifies Geeks Everywhere
Posted by Melanie "The Intern" Johnson on Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 4:23 PM
- tardisblue-.tumblr.com
So this is happening: the BBC has brought in director David Yates (best known for churning out the final four Harry Potter films) to develop, possibly from scratch, a Doctor Who movie for the big screen.
As a textbook change-is-bad-style geek, my initial reaction to this news looked a lot like this:
But now that I've had some time to consider the possibilities, I am going to try to remain cautiously optimistic. After all, things could be much, much worse:
1. The BBC could have hired a different Harry Potter director. Think of all the family-friendly hijinks the Doctor could get into with Sorcerer's Philosopher's Stone / Chamber of Secrets director Chris Columbus at the helm! Remember Home Alone? How about Christmas with the Kranks? Maybe New Who could be a Christmas movie! EVIL SANTA ROBOTS, CYBERMEN WITH REINDEER ANTLERS, DALEKS LEARNING THE POWER OF LOVE. Ray Romano stars! Blockbuster, instant holiday classic.
2. Or it could be a musical. (Well, this pretty much already happened, but now that he's procreated with his TV daughter-clone-TV predecessor's daughter, David Tennant is basically dead to me, so it doesn't count.)
3. Or they could bring back Billie Piper, who is seriously the worst.
So... I don't know. Allons-y, right? Could be worse? Let's give him a chance?
I'm going to go scream into a pillow now.
Geek / Occupy Occupy Sin City
Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 9:59 AM
Frank Miller, who is responsible for the worst comics-to-film adaptation I've ever seen and who hasn't made a good comic book since 1992, published an anti-Occupy Wall Street rant on his blog over the weekend. Bleeding Cool helpfully reprints the rant so you don't have to give Miller the hits:
Everybody’s been too damn polite about this nonsense:The “Occupy” movement, whether displaying itself on Wall Street or in the streets of Oakland (which has, with unspeakable cowardice, embraced it) is anything but an exercise of our blessed First Amendment. “Occupy” is nothing but a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists, an unruly mob, fed by Woodstock-era nostalgia and putrid false righteousness. These clowns can do nothing but harm America.
“Occupy” is nothing short of a clumsy, poorly-expressed attempt at anarchy, to the extent that the “movement” — HAH! Some “movement”, except if the word “bowel” is attached — is anything more than an ugly fashion statement by a bunch of iPhone, iPad wielding spoiled brats who should stop getting in the way of working people and find jobs for themselves.
This is no popular uprising. This is garbage. And goodness knows they’re spewing their garbage — both politically and physically — every which way they can find.
Wake up, pond scum. America is at war against a ruthless enemy.
Then, of course, he ties this all in with the War on Terror, because 9/11 broke what's left of Frank Miller's brain. (I never got a review copy of Miller's latest comic, Holy Terror, but this is a great piece of writing about it.) You should go read the whole rant. My favorite part is when he tells the kids to get off his lawn and go play "Lords of Warcraft [sic]."
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Geek / Horrors Bil Keane Is Dead.
Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 2:44 PM
Even worse: For as long as shitty small-town newspapers manage to eke out their meager operation costs from advertisers, Keane's horrible legacy will continue to stain comics pages around the nation. The Family Circus has survived him. The Family Circus, with its horrible conservative agenda and fawning worship of the inane, will survive us all. And that's all Bil Keane's fault. He may have been a warm and caring human being, but his legacy is made of shit and terror and self-loathing. A man has died, and that's a shame. But I cannot celebrate the disgusting "art" on which he built his fortune. I wish it died with him.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Geek / Puppy Behold a Corgi Dressed Up As a Spaceship That Is Shaped Like a Horse
Posted by Erik Henriksen on Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 9:59 AM
Monday, October 31, 2011
Geek / Puppy "The 11th Dogtor" Is King of All Dogs and Time Lords
Posted by Erik Henriksen on Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 9:44 AM
In general, I have a furious dislike for dogs who have been put into people clothing. I have made an exception in this case.
Pudge derPoopster, via FilmDrunk.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Geek / Film Did George Lucas Betray His Responsibility to the Fans?
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 10:44 AM
Originally intended for release last year, The People Vs. George Lucas was finally released on DVD on Tuesday. It's a documentary about George Lucas's relationship with his films, his relationship with his fans, and his fans' relationship with him. If you've spent any time reading about Star Wars on the internet, you have at least a passing familiarity with the cases presented against Lucas—the prequels, the special editions, the shameless merchandising—but the documentary is structured in a clean, concise way.
This is a movie with a lot of talking heads. Star Wars fans, Neil Gaiman, fan filmmakers, haters—there must be dozens of interviews stringing this film together. Luckily, we don't have to look at a bunch of people talking, as the movie is interspersed with clips from probably over a hundred different Star Wars fan films, ranging from the goofy (people wearing pie plates as armor in their back yard) to the fascinating (someone who painted over consecutive frames from the movie, illustrating Darth Vader's thoughts as colorful sprays exploding around his head). It's a visually intriguing movie that avoids a lot of the pitfalls of novice documentarians.
I had a hard time with the conclusion of the film, which feels too pat and then concludes with a painful song about loving George Lucas that goes on far too long. (One of the benefits of a DVD release is that I can tell you to just stop watching as soon as the nasal voice kicks in at the end of the movie; you won't miss anything after that.) But on the whole, this is a worthwhile cinematic addition to the Star Wars phenomenon, unlike, say, the atrocious Fanboys.
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