Jingle Bell Grok: Holiday Rude
Dec 22Despite the overwhelming barrage of illness that has affected your Alert Nerd family (and our families) over the past week, we are committed to Jingle Bell Grok in the way that some people cannot commit to, say, Sparkle Motion. Yes, I just made a Donnie Darko reference – deal with it.
I was watching The Muppet Christmas Carol with my 15 month old niece this weekend when I noticed what may be the most incongruously awesome thing I have ever seen in my 30 years of Muppet-related viewing. Pay attention to the final seconds of this:
Thanks are due, by the way, to the awesome Jenelle Riley for pointing it out – I honestly would have missed it otherwise. I hope Alana missed it, too, or her mom will have yet another unfortunate behavior to blame me for.
Later today, SECRET GUEST POST #1. Start ‘bating that breath, Nerdians!
Jingle Bell Grok
Dec 18Not content to rest on our laurels after the amazingcrazy release of Grok #3, we’re having yet another theme week, much like this Fall’s Grok the Vote. Except it will be even better, just because we’re even more awesome.
Hyperbole aside, we’re having a Christmas* themed week of posting, starting tonight and going right up through Christmas Day. We’ve got a few Secret Guest Posters lined up, too, including a visit from Grok’s editor in chief Fake George Lucas; if YOU want to contribute, hit us up on Twitter or send us an email.
Happy Holidays to all of our loyal, smart, and attractive readers. You deserve a pony or the USS Flagg, whichever one you wanted as a kid but NEVER GOT.
*Or Yule, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, etc. We’re equal opportunity nerds.
I'm posting this from my iPhone
Dec 17I’m also reading Grok #3 on it. Then I’m going to Twitter about that… From my iPhone.
Also;
iPhone.
Haterz.
Grok #3: Nameless Horror
Dec 17
The holidays can be a bit much, eh? We’ve already spent way too many hours stuffing our faces with eggnog-flavored gagh, shoving through the mall in search of discontinued Mighty Muggs, and avoiding the handsy Skrulls that always seem to be lurking under the office mistletoe (yes, we know He Loves Us; no, we do not need a one-on-one demonstration).
And yet, we can’t help but be gripped by a certain joyful spirit and goodwill toward geeks and we want to make sure your year-end festivities are as stupendously awesome as possible. So we have a little gift for you…Grok #3!
If you’ll recall, this is our PDF zine that you can read on your computer screen or print out and tote wherever you desire. Within, you will find fiction, essays and other general hilarity dedicated to geek culture and the nerd experience. This time ’round, we went a little Lovecraftian with the theme and called it “Nameless Horror.”
Grok #3: Winter ’08, Nameless Horror (PDF)
In this issue (which, incidentally, is our fattest edition evAR and features glorious cover art by the amazing Toren Atkinson)…
One Con Glory, Part III, by Sarah Kuhn: As Julie’s tale of “sex and woe and fandom” finally wraps up, the following things occur: People chase each other. There is a very important Buffy debate. Braidbeard meets his fate. Oh, and someone Twitters something.
So This Ghost Walks Into a Bar… by Jeff Stolarcyk: Jeff shadows some professional paranormal investigators for a night and has a few close encounters of the extremely spooky kind. As some dude once said, the truth is out there.
Love, Lovecraft Style, by Matt Springer: Becky loves her Coo-coo-lulu as only a 16-year-old “world-weary veteran of the battlefield of love” can. But does Coo-coo-lulu feel the same way?
Autotaxonomy, by Samantha Rich: Choosing your internet pseudonym is one of those excruciating experiences that involves hours of pondering, teeth-gnashing, and swapping out “Y”s for random vowels. Samantha explores the pain.
So Perfect, by Stephen Graham Jones: Teenage girls. Ticks. The quest for perfection. To say anything more would be to spoil things, but rest assured: you will have nightmares.
My Tattoo, by Chris Stewart: Chris has a dirty little secret. OK, so it’s sort of given away in the title, but as with most interesting stories, there’s a lot more to it than that. Horror — capital “H” — is involved.
The Tale of the Gallant Sailor, by Matthew Walden: Long ago, when wishes still came true, there lived a father who performed his service to the world as a reactor operant on a nuclear submarine. Second class petty officer of the United States Navy, Sir!, was his rank and Northrop Glitten was his name. This is his story.
Yelp Reviews of the Arkham Waffle House, by Ivan Sian: I ordered my hash browns “scattered, smothered, and covered,” NOT “scattered, smothered, covered, slimed and coated with entrails.” OK?
Plus: filler jokes! Throwaway quizzes with funny art! Scintillating contributor bios! And another letter from your pal Fake George Lucas! Check it out…if you dare!
Finally, Crisis
Dec 15So I spent some time this weekend re-reading all of Final Crisis to date, and then reading a CBR file of issue 5, since my physical copy is currently winging its way toward me in an envelope from Arlington, MA. Some notes:
I think it’s definitely true that a lot of Grant Morrison’s work tends to make more sense as a totality than as specific chapters published in incremental installments, but Final Crisis actually works pretty well from issue to issue, when you slow yourself down and concentrate enough to adjust to Morrison’s unique sense of pacing. He really does clip off the beginnings and endings of scenes, compressing each bit of action and dialogue until only the barest essentials remain. It requires a level of discipline as a reader that frankly most comics don’t need.
So on the second reading, I understood everything better, but not just because it was the second time I’d read it–I also slowed myself down enough to consume the story morsels I was being rapidly fed, instead of speeding through them with the expectation that at some point all the heavy lifting would be done for me and I’d get some kind of breather to process what I was seeing.
This fifth issue really does tighten the noose quite a bit–the threads are being pulled taut and we’re past the “what the fuck” moments and into the “oh, that’s what the fuck” moments big time. Finally, this does feel like a Crisis, beyond just the touchstone moments that Morrison gave us in rapid succession over the past four issues.
