The Awesome “Geek A Week” Project Goes Mainstream on CNN.com!

Image: Len Peralta

The geeks are speaking about “Geek A Week.”

Cleveland artist Len Peralta’s quest to create a year-long trading-card style tribute to geekdom, which began last winter with a Jonathan Coulton card, is not only going strong 33 weeks in, but has landed a big CNN.com profile today with quotes from Adam Savage, Felicia Day and “Weird Al” Yankovic.

Peralta’s also kept busy with his W00tstock poster work and illustrating Trace Beaulieu’s Silly Rhymes for Belligerent Children.

Catch up on the whole set here, and listen to Peralta’s interviews with many of his subjects at GeekAWeek.net. (Where he’s also announced the next card in the set.)

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Review & Giveaway: Vapor Cases Enhance the iPhone 4’s Sleekness

Vapor cases

There are iPhone cases, and then there are iPhone cases. The “bumpers” that Apple ended up providing for free in response to the signal loss hullabaloo are fine as far as they go, as are most other cases you’ll find at the Apple store or Best Buy. But the vast majority have a basic built-in problem: they cover up the attractive silver wrap-around antenna — which is necessary to work around the issue, I realize — and provide nothing with the same sort of flair to replace it.

Enter the Vapor case from Element Case, a company whose wares we’ve reviewed here on GeekDad before. The Vapor cases, like their iPhone 3G and 3GS gases, aren’t cheap but definitely don’t look cheap, either. They’re made out of aircraft-grade aluminum, which makes them very strong and very light. The cases come as two pieces: a black, silver or graphite (gray) piece that fits around the top, bottom, and left side of the iPhone and a colored piece that fits the right side and attaches to the first piece by way of four small hex-socket screws (the case comes with an appropriate-size hex key and, helpfully, two extra screws just in case). The inside of the case is lined with a material that is intended to absorb the shock of an impact and provide a non-conductive barrier intended to prevent signal loss (read on, however). The second piece is available in a variety of colors, enabling you to customize it to a degree (custom engravings will be available in the future). The case comes with a plastic plate that uses adhesive to stick to the iPhone’s back (with a hole for the camera and flash, of course).

Continue Reading “Review & Giveaway: Vapor Cases Enhance the iPhone 4’s Sleekness” »

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AMC’s Back to the Future Giveaway

Back to the Future

Image: AMCTheatres.com

As part of AMC’s 25th anniversary re-release of the Back to the Future trilogy, they’re also giving away five copies of Looney Labs’ Back to the Future card game. Just visit the AMC Blog here, leave a comment with your favorite BttF character, and they’ll pick the winners on Monday. In case you haven’t read my full review, the card game is a fun take on the movies and playing with the space-time continuum.

(Thanks to GeekDad Dave Banks for spotting this!)

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Waiting — and Wait-Listing — for Superman

Poster: Paramount Pictures

My daughter just started Kindergarten at a New York City public school. The process of getting her there began when she was two years old and I started touring schools, fearing that if I didn’t like any of the possibilities we’d need time to move. The past year has felt like a part-time job, my time filled with tours, applications, and even an essay. Fortunately, we’re zoned for a pretty good school, but children in the zone had previously been wait-listed for reasons of overcrowding. Gifted and talented testing (yes, taking your four-year-old for a standardized test) can open up more options. Then there are several schools of choice, meaning anyone from the district can go, but there’s only one way to get in: a lottery.

The school lottery is the central metaphor in the controversial new film, Waiting for Superman, from the director and producer of An Inconvenient Truth. The film follows five students and their dedicated parents as they try to escape the failing school lot they’ve been given in hope of a better education. Of course, there are only so many seats at the schools that are succeeding, so the only fair way to accept students is by lottery. It is absolutely gut-wrenching to watch these kids, seeing two paths laid out in front of them and the path they’ll take is determined by a slip of paper or number on a ball. Bring Kleenex, and lots of it.

[Read more of Amy Kraft's review of Waiting for Superman over at our companion site, GeekMom!]

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Interview With the Cowardly Lion From The Witches of Oz 3D

The Witches of Oz 3D is an upcoming movie and potential TV series based on the famous books by L. Frank Baum and loaded with geek-friendly actors: Sean Astin, Billy Boyd and Christopher Lloyd as a steampunk Wizard of Oz.

It also stars Barry Ratcliffe, an actor whose career I’ve covered as a newspaper reporter since his days as a police officer on Nash Bridges.

Here’s my interview with Ratcliffe, who plays a character named Bryan who has suspiciously long teeth:

Q: You’re playing the Cowardly Lion? I saw you roaring in the trailer and you didn’t look Cowardly at all! And you were at least part-human. What’s your character up to?
A: Well, I am not even supposed to tell you I am the Lion, it is the worst kept secret on the film, because, well, Bryan rhymes with Lyon. As far as what I am up to, I start out very cowardly, just a goofy lovable lawyer — if there is such a thing, ha, ha. And I turn as the characters start to appear, as Dorothy needs us.

Q: Geeks are always worried about a story’s faithfulness to the book. What’s the story here and how well does it jive with the book?
A: It goes very well with the book and sets up the complete telling of all 14 books.

Q: How does it fit with the Judy Garland movie?
A: I can’t tell you much here because of our non-disclosure agreements, but I will tell you, it has it all for the family, and it is very, very good. You will recognize plot points and characters, but the story is more original than a remake, paying homage to the original story as well.

Continue Reading “Interview With the Cowardly Lion From The Witches of Oz 3D” »

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Iron GM: Are You The Best Game Master?

The Iron GM competition will be held this November 4-7 at NeonCon in Las Vegas. It sounds really cool! If you’re attending, be sure to check it out. It costs $6 to participate as a player and $12 to compete as a GM. The winner gets a free trip to Gen Con Indy ‘11.

Think you’re the best Game Master in town? Prove it!
Iron GM is the national tournament that turns adventure-making into competitive sport. Game Masters clash in a challenge of wits, stamina and creative potency for prizes and a title shot!

Players, Looking for the Hottest Game Around?

Players, reap the fruits of battle as your GM fights to give you the greatest game of your life! Sit in judgment – only you can decide if they are Iron!

How’s it work?

GMs are randomly assigned to a table of Players. Next we reveal our three secret story ingredients. GMs have sixty minutes to craft adventures, placing the secret ingredients at the nucleus of their games, while Players have sixty minutes to build characters. After hours of thrills, Players rate GMs on special scorecards using tournament-tested criteria.

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Pajaggle: An Amazingly Addictive Puzzle Game Anyone Can Play

Playing Pajaggle with Great Grandma

My daughters teach their great-grandma to play Pajaggle.

You wouldn’t think that Pajaggle would get much attention at a place like PAX. You take a bunch of videogame and tabletop game aficionados, put them together in a convention center filled with videogames and tabletop games, and convince them to sit down and play with … a puzzle?

Pajaggle at PAX

Kids and adults playing Pajaggle at PAX Prime.

Not only did PAX-goers stop to play Pajaggle, I even had to wait around for my first turn at it — and each of the few times I passed by the tables were filled.

Pajaggle, however, is no ordinary puzzle.

The board and the pieces are made of a glossy laser-cut acrylic, and the shapes remind me of my old Spirograph doodles: flowers and gears and stars. They’re cut very precisely with very little wiggle room. Since many of the shapes are similar, it’s trickier than it may appear at first. So what’s so special about Pajaggle? Why is this something that my four-year-old could play with her 87-year-old great-grandma?

Or maybe more importantly, what is it that hooked me?

Continue Reading “Pajaggle: An Amazingly Addictive Puzzle Game Anyone Can Play” »

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GeekDad Guitar Lesson: “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” by Blue Öyster Cult

Keeping with October’s Halloween/Horror theme, this week we dissect the main riff from Blue Oyster Cult’s “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”.  The riff gets its character by allowing open strings to ring against fretted notes and it is a bit of a challenge to play.  One last thing, make sure to have someone play cowbell along with you.  This song needs cowbell.

Want more?  Follow John on Twitter and download his new song “A Stormtrooper for Halloween” for as little as free.


          

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Super Scribblenauts — Now With Adjectives!

I’m a little late to the game, but Super Scribblenauts for the Nintendo DS snuck out a couple days ago. Like the original, Super Scribblenauts is a side-scrolling game with a puzzle twist. Players can summon an object simply by scribbling their names, but may now combine them with adjective to solve the puzzles.

To the right is a newspaperish dragon. Other levels feature a cheesy mansion and a gentlemanly golem. I can’t see how a golem can be a gentleman, but I’ll try to keep an open mind.

I should be receiving a review copy of the game soon and will give it a full proper review with my son sometime this weekend.

Scribblenauts and Super Scribblenauts are available from Amazon for about $30.

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Road Trip! Destination: Motorcity

Image: © Disney Channel

Evil, resource-rich overlord? Check. Scrappy rebels? Check. Battleground? Detroit.

Disney’s XD network sounds like it’s gunning for a familiar-but-fun feel with next fall’s Motorcity cartoon series, which has just started production.

Motorcity will be “set in a futuristic Detroit after it has been purchased and built into Detroit Deluxe by evil billionaire Abraham Kane,” according to Disney’s announcement.

The show’s got some nicely geek-credentialed creative types behind it, from animation writing veterans George Krstic (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) and John O’Bryan (Avatar: The Last Airbender) to story editor Craig Lewis (Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends) to executive producer and director Chris Prynoski (nerd-culture-rich Megas XLR, which Krstic also co-created).

And the villain, Abraham Kane? Voiced by some guy named Mark Hamill.

More from the press release: Kane, having banned personal freedoms including automobile transportation, is ultimately challenged by a group of rebels who call themselves The Burners. Led by 17-year-old Mike Chilton, The Burners retreat to an underground city, customize their fleet of hot rods and pursue their quest to stop Kane from taking over the world.

Disney Television Animation and Prynoski’s Titmouse Inc. are partnering to produce the show, which, given the track records of both, hopefully means we’re in for some striking visuals to go with what should be some strong storytelling.

I would also not be surprised if there were robots involved.

If you feel like checking out Disney XD’s full statement on the show, it’s in .doc format here.

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