Forty-Two

We watched the cute homage to Star Wars geekery, Fanboys, last night and I really got a kick out of it. Besides all the great cameos (including Jay and Silent Bob, Yay!) I really reveled in the period nostalgia and cute story set in the time of pre-but-imminent “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” when Star Wars was still only about the classic three films (before Lucas made the crappy new ones) and there was still the big Star Trek vs. Star Wars epic battle going on between geeks. It was a cute film and I got a kick out of it. Afterwards, though, I totally started thinking about the geek that was me during that era and how my life may have been different if I’d made other choices in my life. I coulda been a geek contenda! Of course I was kind of the “geek of all trades, master of none” just like I am in every other aspect of my life. Maybe if I had channeled one of those trades, I could be a true Professional Geek (a la Woz) instead of a temp secretary at a company that makes rocks only dreaming of those days.

I could have been a fanboy geek. I remember spending hours playing with Barbie and Ken dolls acting out “Star Wars: A New Hope” and “Empire Strikes Back” scene-by-scene (no dialogue omitted) with my friend Jessica and watching the VHS tapes of those same films over and over again on her fancy VCR that was still way cutting edge at the time. We always made sure to say the lines while the actors did. We rocked it. We were in second or third grade, I think. But by fifth grade when Return of the Jedi came out, I had moved into town and away from Jessica. I don’t even really remember seeing that film when it came out, although I almost assuredly did. So I guess, “What If” I had stayed that into the franchise? I’m sure I could have been a “fanboy” like the characters in the film. I mean, I never even got into the Star Trek franchise until TNG came out in late 1987 when I was going into my freshman year at high school and I really did always have a soft spot for Han Solo. Oh sure, I know I collected the action figures for TNG and DS9 religiously (still NIB when I sold them last year at our garage sale!), but it wasn’t the same true geekery since I also started really getting into bands all hardcore then, too. Maybe I would have gone into film or something. Who knows.

Well, how about the science geek? I subscribed to Discover magazine in middle school and still have a subscription to New Scientist (best magazine EVER!). I joined the Science Team in middle school for a year but got bored with it since as a newbie I wasn’t allowed in the competition that year. I aced all my science classes but I wasn’t allowed to take a Physics class in high school since I ditched out of Trigonometry because of the lame basketball-coach-turned-math-teacher that taught it. Without physics, I ended up taking art classes to fill up my time and never really pursued the study of science. I still love reading the XKCD comics and I love the Big Bang Theory tv show. I kinda figure if I had gone that route, I would have ended up a little like Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory, all socially inept and all.

With the art background, I could also have been a comics geek, since I totally had a crush on this guy Jon in 6th grade who was so into TMNT comics (before that franchise really became anything else) and introduced me to the genre. If not for him, I never would have discovered the Sandman graphic novels later in life and appreciated the work of Neil Gaiman. But Jon wouldn’t date me in 6th grade, so I know I looked down on comics after that and there went my chance of being a comics geek and drawing or inking comics or working in or running a comics store. Although my pilgrimage to Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash in Red Bank, New Jersey  in 2001 does tell of my secret longing for that lifestyle. That and my huge crush on Kevin Smith that never really went away even after he got married and started making kinda lame films like Jersey Girl.

And the computer geek? Sure I cut out pictures of Cray computers and put them in my locker in high school. But we didn’t own a computer and I never even programmed anything until I took a BASIC class in college after I graduated from Graphic Design school and had used GUIs for years on Macs learning Adobe and PageMaker and QuarkXpress. I had worked in semiconductor manufacturing for four years before I had ever written a line of code (making chips out of four-inch silicon wafers – they were transitioning to six-inch when I left). Strange, that. I spent those years getting my degree while using those lovely green-screened VAX systems with Oracle databases and such beautiful NeXT systems with awesome graphics that ran our plasma glass deposition systems. By the time I quit that job (damned Liquid Acid Etch and crappy bosseswho wouldn’t transfer me out!) I had a real knowledge of what was inside them and a true love for computers and I hadn’t really ever worked on a PC. I got my first computer the year I quit the semiconductor job, a PC with Windows 3.x, but it was always lame compared to everything else I knew. It’s no wonder we’re a Mac family now. But I never got into programming since I did the GUIs first. I could still get into programming. I got Sean some programming for the iPhone books for his birthday. I might just have to read them.

Then there is the videogame geek. We had Radio Shack handheld games that my Dad stole from work before he stopped working there and gave them to us as gifts on the few occasions he’d show up in our lives when I was under 12, but that was about the extent that my exposure to video games was at a young age. In high school my friends and I would hang out at the arcade in the bowling alley, but I was more interested in eating the fried cheese curds and onion rings and watching Charles beat the original Zelda and Joust games than playing myself. Then Charles freaked me out by asking me out and I totally bailed on hanging out there anymore. Sure I watched TRON and The Last Starfighter, and read Ender’s Game, but honestly I didn’t get into video games at all until Sonic the Hedgehog on Sega after high school. Who knows what would have been if that had been my direction. I could have gotten into writing games or building them. Even now I have Sonic on my iPhone and we own an original Sega, a GameCube, and the Wii all with Sonic games but I don’t really have any inkling to play the Half-Life, WoW, or other games that were or are “all the rage” and our infrequent Rock Band sessions are more about singing karaoke than playing video games.

Besides the geeky arts, I was also a big-time book nerd, but that can only take you so far.

And I’m still a big book nerd. I mean, my favorite book of all time is Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Which is pretty nerdy. And I’m working on the writing stuff. But nerdy isn’t geeky. We’ll just have to see if I can get my geeky sides to pay off.

I love zombies.

For me it all started the first time I saw the original “Night of the Living Dead” by George A. Romero. A black-and-white film from 1968.

The whole ending was awesome where the good guy was victimized by the military that were supposedly there to “save” him. Ha. Zombies were neutral, just trying to get a brain to feed their hungry tummies, whereas mankind was truly a malicious evil. Wow. Blew my mind. Of course I was like 12. Still, I totally dug it. It was social commentary, race-issue commentary, and entertainment all wrapped up in one gripping drama-comedy-horror flick. What wasn’t there to enjoy?

Then came Romero’s follow-ups, “Dawn of the Dead” (shopping malls are awesome ways to escape the re-animated dead! Who knew? Loved it!) and “Day of the Dead” (not my favorite – too much military, ugh), followed by Dan O’Bannon’s 1985 “Return of the Living Dead” written by John Russo who co-wrote the original “Night of the Living Dead” and also the first Zombie film to use the now-ubiquitous “Brainnnnnsssss…..” line. Yay!

Now of course we have the modern films, “Resident Evil” and sequels – there is just something so cool about chicks that kick butt and save the day. Woo Hoo! (All awesome – I totally want to buy an Umbrella umbrella – available at ThinkGeek!) and the parody “Shaun of the Dead” which I still love even though it doesn’t take itself seriously. Still. Wicked fun.

But tied up in all of it is all the other stuff, too, like the video games “Evil Dead” and of course “Resident Evil”, and the popular culture references like the one in web comic xkcd (www.xkcd.com):

the cool t-shirts like this one that was featured on BoingBoing (www.boingboing.net) 

- yes, a Vegan Zombie who wants “GRAINNNS!”
Ha ha ha. Cracks me up every time.

Of course you also have Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video which is a classic and is even repeated as a “get everyone involved” dance in the cute retro “13 Going on 30” film which I loved.

And then there is the Zombie Survival Guide book by Max Brooks and of course the new Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith that I wrote about earlier. Fun fun fun!

All in all, it started with the fact that it was social commentary and went on to become fun and entertaining and a subculture all its own. Love it! More Zombies! Yay!

Finally read The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett. I’ve loved the film of the same name that’s based on this book for over two decades but never picked up the book. Well, I’ve been missing out! The book is awesome! It reads almost exactly like the film plays with the same witty banter between Nick and Nora Charles that made the film one of my all-time favorites. I was pleasantly surprised to find some scenes translated almost word-for-word to the film and there really weren’t that many differences in the story  between the two despite the platform requirements of the film.

Set in end-of-prohibition-era New York at Christmastime, the Thin Man from the title is actually a man named Clyde Wynant, a scientist, that has gone missing. The dynamic duo of Nick and Nora are the most charming married couple I’ve ever seen and the film’s Nora played by Myrna Loy has been my female ideal since I originally saw the film and although the book’s Nora is a little less fleshed out, her wit and humor are still there. And William Powell’s Nick is a handsome and extremely intelligent character that the book’s Nick doesn’t quite match, but the intelligence is still there.

The story follows the rich and perpetually-drunk couple Nick and Nora as they return to Nick’s old stomping ground of New York for the holidays to get away from Nora’s oppressive family in California. Nick was formerly a well-known private-eye in New York until he met wealthy socialite Nora and they married, allowing him to quit his job and become a “gentleman” which mostly means spending the day “tight” (drunk) which is even funnier when you take it in the prohibition-era time period.

Nick runs into Clyde Wynant’s daughter Dorothy in a speak-easy while he’s waiting for Nora to finish her Christmas shopping and he gets immediately thrust into the search for the girl’s father against his will just as the murder of the man’s long-time secretary/mistress is discovered by the man’s divorced and re-married wife (Dorothy’s mother).

The whodunnit murder mystery unravels slowly between social visits to the Charles’ hotel suite and visits to speakeasies where everyone is drinking (even the cops). The humor and wit is rich and entertaining, and the story is told quickly and flows across the page. The characters are all more fully developed in the book (as expected) and there is a lot more to the story in the book that didn’t make it to the film (also as expected). All-in-all I found the book to be amazing and no wonder that it was made into such a successful film and five fun sequels that even now are still relevant and entertaining. Both are classics!

A cute film about a man who has a brush with death and begins to see ghosts. Both really funny and poignant, the film revolves around the main character played by Ricky Gervais who is anti-social and self-absorbed. The ghosts he begins to see are very demanding and want him to help them, and the film follows Ricky’s character as he fights their requests and constant attention by trying to stay self-important.

I found the film both intellectually entertaining and emotionally involving. I got a kick out the of the way sneezes are portrayed, as well as the sense of humor of the film. I will admit I cried at the sad parts, and I definitely appreciated the emotional charge as Ricky’s character grew and learned about himself and the world around him.

I liked this film and I thought it was an entertaining way to spend the evening.

Worst film ever! I rented this based on Sean’s dad’s recommendation (his favorite film of all time) and honestly it is the worst film I’ve ever seen. Death, destruction, caricatures of every stereotype of Asians and women, and just the worst ending ever. Ugh! Not my kind of film at all. No, the guy does not get the girl, and no, they don’t save the world.

Steve McQueen plays the main character and Candice Bergen plays his love interest, but both are flawed characters and with the war going on and the situation they are in put them both in a position that you despise their choices as well as the people around them. If ever there was a reason for other countries to hate us, this film shows the kind of military personnel we should have representing us around the world. No wonder China became communist! If we were the alternative based on these characterizations, I would too!

Love is unrequited, women are treated as objects and unable to make decisions for themselves, everyone dies that you learn anything about, and the war and the leaders are bastards. So, as a film I was rather disappointed. I would not recommend this to anyone unless you want to feel like crap and that nothing in life has a point.