In anticipation for the Oscars on Sunday I chatted with Wendy Weinberg an associate professor of Film/Video at the University of the Arts, who in 1993 was nominated for an Oscar for her thesis short documentary film. It was really interesting to get a local perspective on the Oscars, from someone who experienced the event firsthand.  I hope you enjoy this very down to earth look into the event from the perspective of a Philadelphian documentarian. Continue Reading…

Local comic book publisher Grayhaven Comics has made quite a name for itself over the last 3 years, releasing over 17 editions of The Gathering anthology in addition to several one-shots.

Now the company is looking to utilize its artistic platform to raise awareness for all types of personal injustice. A comic anthology, You Are Not Alone targets bullying, homophobia, racism, depression and abuse with stories from both well known creators as well as up-and-comers.

Launched at the beginning of February, the Kickstarter will assist in the printing of 1000 copies of the trade paperback sized, 150 page book. Backers can contribute as little as $1 with incentives such as a PDF or regular copy of the book or a sketch of a character from one of the artists.

UPDATE: You Are Not Alone has met its funding goal and will be published!

Not only will an additional 650 copies be made but Grayhaven has also updated exciting “unlockables” including an increased page count and 2nd Variant cover. This Kickstarter ends on March 3rd so be sure to visit their page and contribute to this important project!

Grayhaven on Facebook.

Welcome to another exciting weekend in Philadelphia! I’m here with the Geekend to steer you straight. There’s a lot going on these next few days – try not to get overwhelmed!

Friday, February 22

There’s plenty to do Friday for those of you just looking to have an interesting day around the city! There’s the Monthly Fourth Friday Tour Series: Hot Spots and Storied Plots at the Laurel Hill Cemetery. This tour starts at 10AM and costs $8.

This week’s Free at Noon at the World Cafe Live is Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale. Enjoy some lunch and free music! At night, go to the International House for an Exhumed Films zombie double feature. The two movies, The Video Dead and Dead Heat, start at 8PM and cost $15. Check out Dan’s write up for more information! Continue Reading…

The Philadelphia Sculpture Gym is a newly formed community workspace for sculptors a la NextFab nested in the heart of Fishtown.

While NextFab’s focus is more on the tech and prototyping side, PSG caters to Philly’s more traditionally artistic community. They’ve been offering a variety of workshops over the past few months since receiving a portion of grants from the Knight Arts Challenge, but their space is still under construction. That’s where you come in.

PSG’s Lucky Ant campaign is nearing its final stretch and they still have three milestones to reach:

1. Finishing the electrical system. Because you should never use a circular saw in the dark.
2. Purchasing additional equipment. A table saw, bandsaw, small scale foundry, MIG and TIG welders, potter’s wheel and kilns, sandblasters, plasma cutter, various tools, and more. The final setup will include a wood shop, mold/casting area, on site gallery, and workshops as well as personal training sessions.
3. THE ALMIGHTY IRON CUPPOLLETE. In other words, an iron furnace. Right now the closest one is in Jersey, and bringing one to Philadelphia would mean artists and hobbyists could create iron castings right here at home. This means the potential for creating iron sculpture, tools, cookware (!), whatever your heart desires. So. Cool.

Lucky Art rewards include everything from tickets to the grand opening to gift certificates and commissioned artwork. Head on over to the campaign page and show your support!

In addition to the online campaign, the PSG will also be hosting a food truck fundraiser on March 14th with Lil Dan’s, Zsa’s Gourmet Ice Cream, Farm Truck Philly, and Just Jackie’s. Following the food truck event will be the grand opening in April (date TBA) with food, live music, and a gallery opening. The folks at the PSG want to hang with your dog too, so bring your well behaved pooch along for the party.

Although geekvents like Wizard World are clearly tremendous, there’s something to be said for old-fashioned cons that eschew celebrity guests and expensive admission fees to focus on just selling comics.

Which brings us to the Mighty Mighty Philly Comic Con.

Held sporadically in Philly throughout the year, the event will be coming to International House this Sunday–along with all the requisite cheap back issues and collectibles that you’d expect (demand?) to find at this type of event. While you won’t see the likes of William Shatner and Stan Lee walking around, the event organizers from Frankenstein Comics have arranged special guests that include Phil Khan (The Guilded Age) and Tony DiGerolamo (From Bongo’s The Simpsons comic).

Still not sold? The first 100 guests will be given free packs of comics. Awesome. This event is the perfect opportunity to fill in holes in your reading collection or just hang out with some like-minded fans. Perhaps I’ll see you there? I’ll be the dude frantically searching for bargains on 1970s Marvel and Archie comics.

For more info, visit Frankenstein Comics’ website.

The Mighty Mighty Philly Comic Con
Sunday, February 24. 10am-4pm. $2.
International House
3701 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA. 19104

Mega Bad Movie Night is back again to give you something awesome to do on a Thursday night. Geekadelphia absolutely LOVES this event. What else do you have going on this Thursday? Nothing can be better than mocking a bad movie with a room filled with strangers! Nothing!

The next Mega Bad Movie Night is TOMORROW at Drexel’s Bossone Research Enterprise Center Lobby on Market Street. Doors open at 6:30, and thanks to Drexel’s College of Engineering celebrating Engineers Week–this Mega Bad Movie Night has a lower price of $5, which includes snacks, drinks, and some of the Academy’s specimens and live animals roaming the grounds.

They’ll be screening The Core with Jason Poole and new to stage Academy physics geek Mike Kaczmarczik and Drexel Professor Dr. Chris Peters giving Mystery Science Theater 3000-like commentary.

Don’t miss out!

Dark Skies, which opens Friday, February 22^nd is the newest film by director Scott Stewart who you might remember as the director of such films as Priest and Legion.

Dark Skies is a supernatural thriller that follows a family living in the suburbs that begin to witness an escalating series of disturbing events occurring around them. When it becomes clear that the family is being targeted by an unimaginably terrifying and deadly force, they take matters in their own hands to attempt to solve the mystery of what exactly is after them.

We have a limited number of passes to a screening taking place Thursday February 21 at 7:30 PM at Rave University 6. Yes, TOMORROW. Want to check the film out for free? Simply head to gofobo.com and register with the code GEEKADC5WA to claim your passes. In the meantime check out the trailer below.

Cartoon Network was nice enough to send me not only their newest Adventure Time DVD compilation featuring the episode Fionna and Cake, which hit store shelves yesterday. But they also sent along a DVD screener of Bad Little Boy the newest Adventure Time episode that finally brought back Fionna and Cake, which premiered Monday night.

This all came in a great box set you can check out in my pics below!

The episode Bad Little Boy brings back our favorite gender swapped adventure team for more girl power, as the Ice King starts to share some more of his creepy fan-fiction to a group of captured princesses. That is until the vampire Marceline frees the princesses and takes over the story, centering it instead on the Vampire Heart-throb Marshall Lee and Fionna’s complicated feelings for the bad boy. Continue Reading…

Photos Courtesy: Caitlin Magarity

Geeks are everywhere. Ask four people what “geek” means and I guarantee you’ll come up with four different answers. There are comic geeks, A/V geeks, marketing geeks, gamer geeks, food geeks, science geeks–the list goes on and on.

While their casual social graces and tendencies towards showmanship might count bartenders out of your geek equation, they fit perfectly into mine.  And besides, this city has no shortage of really geeky bartenders so I think it’s time we all got to know each other. I mean, a geeks’ got to have someone to talk shop with over a fresh brew, right?

Jonn Klein, owner of The Dive (7th and Passyunk) and Watkins Drinkery (10th and Watkins), worships classic dive culture  and 90’s television. His bars are populated by a diverse population of regulars that are starkly loyal to his libations. He is comfortably rough around the edges, a natural storyteller and dons an iconic set of unapologetic mutton chops. You can’t really miss him.

“I grew up watching Cheers when I was a kid and I always kind of wanted to be Sam Malone–minus the alcoholism and career in professional sports.

But for my whole life, I thought I was going to be a doctor. I did all sciences in school. I went to Berkley for molecular and cell biology and it wasn’t until the last moment that I decided that I absolutely didn’t want to be a doctor. I dropped out and walked away from all of that. I moved back to Philly and got back into the restaurant business full-time.

The more I did it, the more I loved it. And the more I loved it, the more I realized that I actually did want to be Sam Malone, for real,” says Klein. Continue Reading…

Welcome to another edition of the Geekend! We’ll visit some fun things you can do to celebrate Valentine’s Day, President’s Day, and the Lunar New Year, as well as a musical about working at a start-up. Oh, and there’s also going to be some sexy burlesque!

All Weekend

Want to spend some time checking out awesome fossils? Then you’re in luck, because the Academy of Natural Sciences is having another Paleopalooza, full of activities about dinosaurs. You can even get your face painted, and “hunt for and keep real fossils.” There’s also musical performances by the Diggity Dudes. I can’t make this stuff up!

Or, if you’re looking to be a little more patriotic, there’s a Presidents Day weekend celebration at the National Constitution Center. Kids can make their own campaign buttons and presidential seals, as well as participate in Presidential Trivia. There will also be re-enactors walking around, so you can run your campaign slogans by them and see what they think!

Interested in seeing a musical about working in a corporate start-up? The Penn Glee Club is putting on Office Bass: A Corporate Musical on Friday and Saturday for $20. “As the newest members of DMY Corporation, these interns must find a way to fit into an office divided by its shortcomings and run by a violent and tyrannical CEO.” Hopefully it has at least one character named Michael Bolton, or it’s probably not even worth the parody! Catch the show Friday at 8PM, or Saturday at 1PM or 8PM. Continue Reading…

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; if you want to see really cutting edge comics, the kind that will make you think and feel and squirm, you have to look to the small, indie publishers. They are the only ones willing to take risks and push the envelope of what the comic book medium is really capable of.

Lucky for all of us, one of those publishers is right here in Philadelphia. 215 Ink has burst onto the scene recently with some of the best comics out there, from the hard to explain yet brilliant Deadhorse to the science-fiction tale Transmeet, 215 Ink is right on the front lines of creativity, making sure quality comics can still be found for those who want them.

And this March will see the culmination of over a year of hard work when Ignition volume 1: The 215 Ink Anthology makes its debut.

The 300-page collection features the work of over 80 of some of the best talent in comics no one has heard of (yet). 215 Ink President Andrew DelQuadro commented, “Ignition is some of our best stuff to date. With stories from the creators of Beware, Vic Boone, Breakneck, FUBAR, Extinct, Blue Moth, The Kitchen Witch and so many more, it’s got something for everyone.”

Pre-orders are now open for both the digital and limited edition print run of what is sure to be the most talked about anthology of the year. It’ll set you back $30, but if you know what’s good for you, you’ll go and reserve yourself one. Then you can say “I’ve been reading so-and-so for years! Ever since he appeared the first 215 Ink anthology.”

For more info, visit 215 Ink’s website.

Hearing Adam Teterus tell me his backstory reminded me a lot of the opening montages of a quirky romcom. The young protagonist moves to Cleveland for a girl, gets a funny job making videos for a strangely niche video game website, has a bad reaction to Cleveland; moves back with the ‘rents and then off again to Texas. Then finally, our our young protagonist found his own way back to Philadelphia and into the coworking community.

Adam likes to talk a lot. He is a former BTMM major at Temple and secretly dreams of becoming a voice actor for Galaxy Express 999. He is charming and quick on a joke but, more prominently, extremely passionate about coworking and community development.

Adam is the point-person at one of Philadelphia’s most popular coworking spaces, IndyHall. He spends most of his days tending to the space, giving tours and managing the Hall community. If you have ever talked to someone at Hall, you have probably talked to Adam.

He makes it a point to say hello and goodbye to anyone that walks into IndyHall. Continue Reading…