Friend of Geekadelphia Britt Miller has long been a staple of the Philadelphia art scene.

Her amazing work can be found around the city on almost any First Friday and now can be seen on her brand new website. There you can check out a full gallery of her remarkable works, read her blog and find out where her work is going to be exhibited next.

It should be your first stop to get the complete story on one of Philadelphia’s premier local artists.

Britt Miller
www.brittmillerart.com

This week, we talk to Nicole Yates of Polish Goodness. She’s the talent behind the delicious pierogies that can be found at beloved geek hangout PYT, as well as a wealth of other places around the city.

How did you get started with Polish Goodness and what else do you do?

The road to pierogies is a wild one for me really. I had gotten canned from my last IT job and after looking for work, realized there was nothing out there. I began thinking about how my mom would make pierogies and give them as holiday gifts — people would FREAK OUT over them. After canvassing interest on Facebook, I learned how to make them and took off from there.

What were you doing in IT?

I’ve done pretty much everything aside from databases (which I consider to be the work of the devil). I’ve taught computer science in two different local grade schools, I’ve worked at four different college in various levels of support and even ran a computer basics night class for adults. Being a computer tech is a lot like being a car mechanic: people never entirely trust you, they either have no idea what you are talking about or they consider themselves the expert and you then become a liar.

So, after my last job, I am done with all of that. I’ll fix stuff for relatives, neighbors and friends but now I make pierogies and write.

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Our favorite comic book writers, Johnny Zito and Tony Trov are at it again… and I had the chance to catch up with them to see what the buzz around Alpha Girls is all about.

So! Tell me a little bit about your latest film project.

JZ: The movie is called Alpha Girls, it’s about a haunted sorority. Alpha Beta house is the oldest and most elite sorority in the world. Some of the most influential politicians, celebrities and scientists are Alpha Girl alumni. After performing long hidden rituals, some of the sisters suspect that their good fortune is tainted by demonic evil. They quickly realize firsthand that the consequences of their curiosity are much more gruesome than any of them could have possibly imagined.

We have enough money to make the movie but we need a couple extra grand for post production stuff like editing, special effects and mastering the soundtrack.

TT – Hot chicks and devil worship. Classic horror movie goodness.

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I had a wonderful time at Wizard World this year! I went around and interviewed all the different cosplayers at this wonderful convention. I had some laughs, learned some life lessons, and most of all… got my geek on! I even recruited Dr. Who cosplayers to help me with the ending of this segment.

Don’t miss Wizard World next year! It’s a great time where you can meet fascinating people, buy some great geek swag, and stalk your favorite celebrity. What can go wrong with that mix?

Here’s a video of some of the people I met this year. For the extended cut, go to www.reel9productions.com!

Welcome to Geek of the Week, where we highlight and profile a special geek in our wonderful city of Brotherly Love. This week we talk to Conrad Benner of Streets Dept, contributor to Phrequency.com and former blogger with Philthy.us.

So, Conrad, I’ve known of you for quite some time. I’m a big fan of your blog. You were with Philthy Blog for a while, how and why did you start that?

Well back in 2007, Paul Thorson (creator of Philthy.us) told me he was going to add a blog to his nightlife photography site, and he asked me if I wanted to run it. I had known Paul for about a year prior, mostly from him taking mine (and everyone else’s) photos all the time at different bars and clubs. And Paul had always liked my little blog, “Ugh News,” that, among other things, made fun of photos of drunk hipsters at clubs, so he asked me to do a similar thing for him. It was a match made in heaven!

Over the two and a half years, [Philthy] turned into a great soapbox for me to voice my opinions on everything. I bought a Flip camera one year and went to Barack Obama’s inauguration, then I’d interview a vegan bakery owner, then I’d go to First Friday with my friends and talk with artists.

It was really just an extension of whatever I was interested in at the time, and it really helped me build a bit of an audience that, I think, has followed me to Streets Dept and to my other freelance writing.

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In this age of YouTube and the internet, pretty much anyone can put together a show and release it to the masses. It is part of what has given so many people an outlet for their creative energy that normally wouldn’t have one. One of the funniest I have seen in a while is Underbelly which, as writer Newt Wallen says “we try to make it nerdy but also keep the comedy high”.

Underbelly is part sketch comedy, part infotainment, all geeky. When I asked about how the group comes up with ideas Wallen replied “Episodes are more or less based on our conversations while watching movies or sitting at a diner. Each of us writes what we know.”

Subjects range from the top sexual Pokemon, the biggest nerd letdowns and reports from places like Wizard World and the My Little Pony Fair. And as a bonus, most episodes are filled in the Philly/South Jersey area since “We know actors and locations so we can get people to come along with us on these dumb adventures”.

Underbelly is some seriously funny stuff. You can watch all the episodes on their YouTube channel and follow them at all the usual social media places.

Underbelly
www.youtube.com/underbellyshow

This week’s geek is Randy Schmidt, independent developer of Forge38. You’ve probably encountered some of his past work with iSepta, shareURmeal, Lose it or Lose it and Nerd Merit Badges.

Hi Randy, tell me about yourself. I know you’re an independent developer, but what how did you get to where you are?

I graduated from Drexel in 2005 with a structural engineering degree and started working as a structural engineer. I had started to play with web development in college but it ramped up after I graduated. I built a couple of web apps for the engineering company based on some ideas I had while working as an engineer.

After a couple of years, I realized it wasn’t going where I wanted so I started thinking about going out on my own. I realized I was a bit socially awkward so I started operation “Learn to Socialize”. I started going to a bunch of meetups around Philly and took some days off of work to go to Cream Cheese sessions (IndyHall before it was IndyHall). It was all these meetups that led me to think about and eventually work on iSepta (I’ll get to that later).

In July 2007 I was getting more and more frustrated with my engineering job and quit. They immediately went into damage control mode and tried to keep me in _some_ capacity. They said I could work part time so I could gently move into working for myself. They dragged their feet for several weeks and came back with “You’ll have to work four days a week to keep benefits”. I was a little annoyed because it seemed like they were trying to get me to cool off then stay as full-time. I sent an email back that I didn’t care about benefits, “I was ready to quit without them three weeks ago”. So yeah, when I came back in on Monday they fired me .

It took me about a month before I was up to speed with enough client work so it was a little scary. I quickly found that although I had little experience building software professionally, I was fairly practical in how I built things so clients seemed to like me. I haven’t had a problem getting client work ever since.

One of the things I did early on was work A LOT of hours to build up a nest egg in my business. It wasn’t fun but it has really allowed me to take time off to work on other projects the last few years.

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In today’s Geek of the Week, we talk to Chris Illuminati, celebrated author of Assholeology and Assholeology: The Cheat Sheet, out via Adams Media.

He’s also well known for his popular Message in a Bottle blog, articles in countless magazines, and for being a surprisingly stand-up gentleman, despite his book titles.

Hey Chris, how about you tell me a little bit about yourself.

Well, let me give a super brief overview of how I got where I am; which is in my career, not how I got into my office wearing boxers and a wife beater. That’s a different story.

I always wanted to do something creative, and writing was something I was good at, but I think more because of imagination than anything else. It was very easy to write how I talk which is great for storytelling but awful for grammar. I did writing for personal enjoyment and to pass the time at many, many crappy jobs I had out of college. I also wrote long emails to friends as a way to pass the time.

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MC Front-a-lot at Nerdrage Last Year, Photo by Kyle Mistry

Our favorite (and possibly only?) Nerdcore artist, Zillapersona, is throwing another Nerdcore showcase in July, and needs your help to make it happen. He’s raising money for his second showcase via Kickstarter, and there are some really fantastic rewards for donating, thanks to Cipher Prime.

Cipher Prime (makers of Auditorium, Fractal, and Pulse) donated copies of Auditorium as a reward on the Kickstarter campaign page. Back the Nerdcore showcase for $10, and not only will you get a copy of Auditorium, you’ll score a ticket to the show (same cost of a ticket at the door) AND the Pulse soundtrack. Win.

For details, visit the Kickstarter page.

Yesterday the Philadelphia Art Sanctuary kicked off its 27th Annual Annual Celebration of Black Writing.

The two week event will feature various activities ranging from film screening and open mic nights, to mini art festivals and panel discussions.

Of particular interest to you Philly geeks, is the event on the 4th. On June 4th from 10am – noon, Art Sanctuary will host ‘Thinking in Pictures: Writing for Graphic Novels, Comic Books, and Cartoons‘. Afterwards there will be an outdoors festival that will feature an appearance by Brian “Deka” Paupaw.

A more detailed description of the events below.

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What do recycling broken umbrellas, puppies in raincoats and a serious self-starter all have in common? Well, you’re about to find out in today’s Geek of the Week, a weekly column on some of the finest folks in Philly up to some crazy/awesome things.

This week we talk to Taryn Zychal, product designer, recycler and out-spoken entrepreneur.

Let’s hear it, Taryn. Tell me about yourself. What do you do?

I’m a 26-year old eco-minded product designer originally from Scranton, PA. I came here in 2004 to pursue a degree in Industrial Design. Since graduating, I’ve done a plethora of different things such as extensive marketing work for some of the country’s most recognizable brands to heading a graphic design department literally Photoshopping models’ imperfections for 8 hours a day.

However, the job that essentially changed my life was a brief stint I did at Terracycle, designing a laptop carriers from reclaimed billboard material and pet products from cardboard. I was hired as a fulltime employee and eventually got pushed down to freelance after the huge economic crisis hit.

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Well, Cipher Prime’s Pulse is officially in the App Store. Folks are digging it, surprise surprise, and I’m loving every minute of watching this Philly-made title climb the App Store charts.

The guys at Prime are planning to update Pulse regularly with fresh new content… and Philly musicians, this is where you come in. Cipher Prime is looking for local musicians who would like to get their music into the game. That’s right, you heard me. So get on that. I’m looking at you, Venice Sunlight, Peter Marinari, and Robots & Racecars.

If you’ve yet to play the title (shame on you!), Pulse is a rhythm based music game that… well, it’s really unlike anything out there right now. Just go download it.

According to Cipher Prime, they’ll be releasing four new songs for Pulse via updates every month, and these updates are free. It’ll give the title a longer life, and keep you iPad folks happy.

Interested in seeing your music on this awesome platform? Sure you are. Head over to Cipher Prime’s website to get all the details. Best of luck.