Dragon*Con 2012: Nerdgasm!

You’d think after several consecutive years of Dragon*Con attendance, I might tire. I might find some things too repetitive or some of the offerings beginning to stale. How can one event hold the interest of 50,000 people for four straight days? Well, then it sounds like you don’t know Dragon*Con.

The annual collective of nerds and geeks (MY PEOPLE, I LOVE YOU!) creates a four day, all day, all night, round the clock festival of  of entertainment and intellectual indulgence like none-other. Dragon*Con is a Geektopia of costumes, panels, markets, concerts, and parties that change each year and stay in step with new all-consuming fandoms. Especially since geek became chic (again) thanks to the incredible success of LOTR and more recently, Batman:DNR, and The Avengers (Oh, did I mention Stan Lee attended this year?); more folks than ever are hitting the Atlanta skywalks to join fellow fans in nerdy revelry. So many more folks in fact, Dragon*Con will be expanding into a sixth building–The AmericasMart–for D*C 2013!

This year, I attended the annual parade on Peachtree St. as well as the True Blood, Vampire Diaries, Buffy & Angel, & Reading Rainbow panels! They were all so good, very fun, and each a unique experience. Everyone was in great spirits and this year (as opposed to last year’s Buffy panel) all of the fans were respectful! Check out videos and live tweets below.

If you’re ever in doubt as to what to buy for that nerd in your life, a membership to Dragon*Con will always be a winner!

You may have noticed a picture of J. August Richards & I! We’d been facebook buds for a while and finally got to meet! He was so nice and down to earth. I was incredibly nervous! Our little conversation was definitely the highlight of my weekend. The Buffy & Angel Q&A he co-hosted was really delightful. I truly hope he returns next year, maybe I’ll be less nervous!

I also had chance to meet the impossibly talented Nelsan Ellis. I don’t understand why he isn’t sleeping on a pile of awards every night.

I had been thinking for a while what I would say, but whatever I came up with just totally left my mind. I babbled big time! I flitted from subject to subject: the weekly live threads I hosted on G+, a fellow fan who was really inspired by him, his work on his short film Page 36  and an upcoming portrayal of MLK. Before I was gently ushered away by his assistant I asked him if  he knew how to twerk.

In the last episode of the most recent season of True Blood, Lafayette dipped a hip in such a way I just wondered! Nelsan was a good sport, but said he didn’t know what twerking was and then asked me to show him! I was slightly taken aback, but quickly explained I was not blessed with tool-set required to twerk well (noazzatall). My friends maintain he was trying trick me into twerking at Dragon*Con!

click on the picture to see it bigger!

 

NNN Episode 77 – Dangerous Gyrations

[NNN] 77- Dangerous Gyrations

Topics: Google joining the copyright infringement game, Facebook is being super jerky, Arrow, Tony Scott, Newsroom, Political Animals, Falling Skies, True Blood, Suits, Red Vs Blue, Awkward Black Girl, Unwritten Rules and we somehow talk about Magic Mike.. again

Nerdtastic News:

• Google Now Factors Copyright Infringement Into Their Search Results
• Facebook being some haters! Policy Bans Exporting User Data to Competing Social Networks
• Speaking of Facebook, which of your friends are snitches?
• How One Teacher Built a computer lab for free
• John Barrowman joins the cast of Arrow (damn it!)
• Famed Director Tony Scott commits suicide, had no brain tumor

[ iTunes | RSS Feed | Tumblr | Facebook | Twitter ]

NNN Episode 71 – British Nerdvasion

[NNN] 71-British Nerdvasion

Topics: Our special guest Martin from SuperJawnCast joins use in the discussion of Cisco trying to be Big Brother, Thousands Pounds and a Negrita documentary crown-funding campaigns, G+ on the iPad, Penny Arcade being jerks.. AGAIN, True Blood, Newsroom plus a review of the movie Drive featuring Ryan Gosling.

SPOILER ALERT:  Discussion of The Amazing Spiderman and Magic Mike movies

Nerdtastic News:

• Cisco locking people out of E2700, E3500, E4500 version routers
• Thousand Pounds Action Co kickstarter to create martial arts film
• Negrita IndieGoGo Campaign to create documentary on Afro-Latin@s
• Nerd Dads discover women are people after having baby girls
• ACTA rejected by Europe
• Did you check to make sure you weren’t infected by DNS Changer malware?
• Google finally releases G+ app for iPad!
• Samsung is awarded in legal win with a backhanded comment

[ iTunes | RSS Feed | Tumblr | Facebook | Twitter ]

NNN Episode 69 – Space Herpes

[NNN] 69-Space Herpes

Topics: We discuss The Newsroom, Legend of Korra, True Blood,  and new Tomb Raider game.  Spoiler Alert on Prometheus and Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter.

Nerdtastic News:

• Zheng Yi Sao: The Greatest pirate EVER!
• Meet Amina of Zaria: The woman Xena: Warrior Princess was based on
• Date Set for Google Tablet
• Wi-fi that can transmit 7 blurays per second
• Twilight Breaking Dawn Pt.2 trailer
• Taken 2 Trailer
• Tyler Perry is Alex Cross
• In online video, minorities find an audience
• Now it’s not an attempted rape scene in Tomb Raider – Get yall story straight

[ iTunes | RSS Feed | Tumblr | Facebook | Twitter ]

NNN Episode 68 – F*ck Sookie

[NNN] 68-F*ck Sookie

Topics: We discuss Legend of Korra, True Blood, Awkward Black Girl, Bunheads, Falling Skies, how the success of Scandal will mean for POC in front or behind the camera

Nerdtastic News:

• ZombiU Gameplay Trailer [NORTH AMERICA]
• Australia Approves R18+ Rating For Games With Mature Content
• Microsoft to make a win 8 tablet
• Neil degrasse Tyson does album with GZA
• Adam Corolla sez wimmenz r not funneh!
• Dear White People (indie film) Trailer
• ‘Django Unchained’ International Trailer
• An autistic superhero: Brothers with autism create comic book series
• Scandal news: Henry Ian Cusick out, Joshua Malina bumped up to series regular

[ iTunes | RSS Feed | Tumblr | Facebook | Twitter ]

NNN Episode 67 – Avenge This

[NNN] 67-Avenge This

Topics: We discuss Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Avengers Assemble, Avatar: The Legend of Korra, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, True Blood Premiere, DC developing Justice League movie and feedback from our #50ShadesofWTF episode.

Nerdtastic News:

• Five Best Internet Radio Services
• Avengers: Earth Mightiest Heroes is Cancelled
• How Many DC Movies Is Warner Bros. Developing Along With ‘Justice League?’
• Abuse Signs

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Which Vampire Show Hates P.O.C. More?

I’m a fan of modern vampire shows. Vampires are creatures often stuck in some romantic, chaotic, usually problematic past.  I very much enjoy seeing them in modern contexts dealing with the problems of our day.

How do they deal with things like the internet and smartphones that make information on them so readily available? The vampire politics of True Blood interest me to no end. The fact that there vampires slide right into our American capitalist system with special airplanes and hotels just for their needs is just genius and natural to me. However, one thing these modern vampire shows can’t seem to deal with is race.

When True Blood first hit the scene fans fell in love with Lafayette and Tara’s familial sass toward each other bolstered by genuine love. In Tara’s first scene she’s reading The Shock Doctrine, a book about disaster capitalism. This sets Tara up as not only sassy, but intelligent and curious. Throughout the first season Tara uses her hard earned smarts to help out other characters (i.e. getting Jason out of jail) and outsmart would be villains.

Lafayette is equally as smart. Realizing how marginalized he is as a black gay man in the deep south he lives outside the lines of society (this is actually Alan Ball’s reasoning) as a prostitute and drug dealer (side-eye is all mine) in addition to his fry-cook job at Merlotte’s. Fans love how he doesn’t take crap from anyone. The AIDS Burger scene is infamous

The show seemed to be obsessed with hurting Tara by breaking her heart, having her rape and tortured (Maryanne, Eggs, Franklin). Lafayette’s relationship with Jesus was so chaste this past season if you didn’t know they were together you might’ve thought they were roommates. The two never had a love scene and never shared more than a quick kiss. Then to top it all off  (much to the delight of haters) Tara was shot in the head at the end of the latest season. Only after a possessed Lafayette ended up murdering  his lover (and poc) Jesus. That is 2/3 of the main POC (people of color) cast of this shown gone (potentially, Tara’s future is uncertain according to interviews).

I’m convinced, True Blood hates POC and I’m not sure that’s too crazy about LGBT people either.

Vampire Diaries isn’t as intricate a world as that of True Blood.  It’s a little bit Twilight  including a teen love triangle with rich  vamps and a little bit True Blood with plenty of sexy time. They’re light on the vampire politics and most folks aren’t even aware of the existence of vampires, witches, and werewolves.  However, one thing they seem to be aware of is that it really does not like people of color.

A theme so constant in Vampire Diaries that I’m surprised it’s not a meme by now, is All Witches are Black and All Vampires are White . They are literally Magical Negroes, sidekicks, slaves, servants and nearly always end up dead.  Witches on Vampire Diaries have startlingly high chance of death. According to this wiki page, 9 of 11 witches to appear on the show are dead. Leading cause of death? Vampire. It’s nearly a matter a fact. As soon as Gloria, an older woman who radiated independence and sass, was revealed to be witch in the second episode of this season, I can began a countdown. Gloria was dead by the forth episode.

There actually have been a few vampires of color. However, Pearl (Kelly Hu–Chinese & English), her daughter Anna (Malese Jow–Chinese & Indian) and the only solitary black vampire, Harper, were all killed within 2 episodes of each other (Pearl & Harper in the same episode).

Human POCs (there aren’t many, which is surprising considering the show takes place in Virginia. Virginia is nearly 20% black/African-American) and don’t have it any better either. From ESC TV Blog

Nurse Haynes (Terri James) appeared in 2 episodes. She was not killed, but was attacked and fed on by brand new vampire Caroline in “Brave New World” (season 2, episode 2).

Carter (B.J. Britt) appeared in one episode,”Brave New World” (season 2, episode 2) in which he was used twice – first as a pawn to test the Lockwoods’ powers and then as food for Caroline.

The character of Aimee (Tiya Sircar, who is Indian American) appeared in 3 episodes, in which she did little more than flirt with Matt and Tyler and make Caroline mad. She was killed by Katherine in “Masquerade” (season 2, episode 7).

An unnamed maintenance worker (George Bryant) appeared in one episode, for about 10 seconds, before being brutally killed by Rose in “The Descent” (season 2, episode 12).

So, good nerds, I pose the question:

Who do you think hates (I think I’ve made a pretty good case for hate) POC more?

True Blood or Vampire Diaries?

Which Show Hates POC More?
	True Blood
	Vampire Diaries
	Other (leave in the comments!)
pollcode.com free polls

NNN Episode 28 – Epic Nerdery

[NNN] 28-Epic Nerdery

We discuss last issue Secret Six, latest episode of True Blood and Wizard World Comic Con Chicago.

NNN Episode 27 – Time Travel Sexing

[NNN] 27-Time Travel Sexing

We talk about L.A. Banks, Wizard World, True Blood & Character Select.

NNN Episode 22 – Team Toni

[NNN] 22-Team Toni

True Blood Season Opener, Marvel Anime Project, Computer Geek Hoarders, The Geek Divide