Grok The Vote: Nerdpolitics
Oct 29My life experience is that nerds, as a general rule, distrust politics almost totally.
As we kick off our special election coverage, I think it’s a phenomenon worth thinking about.
Part of it may be some seething resentment about elections being little more than popularity contests, whether the vote’s being cast for President, American Idol or Sophomore Class Treasurer. Hell, Cloris Leachman JUST NOW got booted from Dancing With the Stars and we all know that her longevity on the show had little to do with her rug-cutting ability.
But beyond that basic unfairness, it’s our (geek) media that has poisoned us against government. Superheroes exist to do the job that the government cannot or will not do. OMAC’s corrupt, futuristic World That’s Coming is intentionally not that far away from the world that’s here, and the idea that the only way to save the world is to have Buddy Blank tear it down – there’s an attractive simplicity to it, much like the Objectivism in Ditko’s Question and Mr. A stories.
The cinema we watch, too, is rife with irresponsible government. No matter whether it’s action, sci-fi or fantasy, the idea that the system doesn’t work is at the very foundation of the genre. Star Wars, our ultimate sacred cow, is a six movie fable about the consequences of bad governance.
This is why geeks love Ron Paul. This is why we don’t bother voting. This is why Transmet fans have pegged every Presidential candidate in the past decade as “The Smiler†– because we know that the institution produces Smilers but that the Spiders that keep them in check don’t exist, can’t exist in an ecosystem of influence peddling and blatant pandering.
Another reason? As a bloc, we frequently find ourselves at odds with The Man, be it over the use of white spaces or videogames’ status as murder simulators (in some capacity beyond Jefferson Stolarship totally killing on back-to-back Bon Jovi tunes in Rock Band. That doesn’t count).
I think for cynic nerds like me that this election has been energizing, what with a longshot candidate who wants to change the way things work in Washington on the cusp of victory. And I could probably be talking about either party there.
So there’s my stodgy diatribe welcoming you all to Grok the Vote – coverage continuing through November 4. Keep reading.
Favreau Talks Marvel @ Ain't It Cool
Oct 29There’s a great interview up at Ain’t It Cool with Quint talking to Jon Favreau and touching on everything from Iron Man 2 to the Avengers movie and even Cameron’s Avatar. Relatively light on spoilers, and full of intriguing, reassuring quotes.
I really like Favreau. I have since Swingers.
I remember seeing Swingers at the show in college, and the answering machine sequence…man, it was amazing. The whole theater was just astonished and laughing, and it made such a huge impact on me, as this perfect little bit of comedy that’s just dripping with pathos. You feel so bad for the guy, but not so bad that you don’t laugh your ass off. As a weird lonely twerp at the time, it hit me where I lived, and where I still vacation from time to time.
On the Marvel stuff, I like that he’s a really talented filmmaker who is sorta coming into his own as a blockbuster director with these films. He gets the genre stuff and he seems to really understand and respect the fans, but not to such a degree that he’s too worshipful of the material or the geek audience.
His attitude is just spot-on, and it’s a breath of fresh air, after Bryan Singer dry humped the film canisters of Donner’s Superman flicks and Brett Ratner tossed together that hugely underwhelming X-Men 3 with bits of decent stories stuck into a blender and poured down a toilet.
I think the right attitude lies right between those two extremes, and that’s where Favreau seems to be. Marvel’s lucky to have him.
Vintage Interview: Pre-Firefly Gina Torres
Oct 28I had a total flashback yesterday, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly’s list of the cheesiest (read: awesomest) syndicated TV shows. Who here remembers the Cleopatra 2525/Jack of All Trades power hour, circa 2000?!
Don’t lie. I know at least half of you just started wailing “In the YEEEAAAAR twent-eee five twent-eee five! Three women keep hope aliiiive!” At least!
The whole thing was shitloads of fun. Jack had Bruce Campbell, while Cleo boasted a slightly insane premise (cryogenically frozen exotic dancer gets thawed in 2525, helps fight evil robots), scantily-clad eye candy of both genders, and one of the best credits sequences of all time.
Oh, and also? A pre-Firefly Gina Torres. In 2000, I interviewed Gina for the now-defunct IGN Sci-Fi. And I just dug up said interview via the Wayback Machine. Let’s all enjoy a little moment with the woman who would be Zoe. (In retrospect: pretty interesting what she says about The Matrix and Morpheus, eh?)
Read This: Jeri Smith-Ready's Wicked Game
Oct 27
I’m trying to come up with the right words to tell you just how awesome Jeri Smith-Ready’s Wicked Game is. I’m also trying to ensure that these words don’t make me sound like a wild-eyed, slobbering fangirl, because my brain has clamped onto this book with the kind of heightened fervor it usually reserves for stuff like re-analyzing old episodes of Buffy and dissecting continuity issues in the Marvel U. It’s refusing to read anything else and wants to install one of those internet-y countdown clocks in order to tick off the milliseconds ’til the sequel arrives (May 2009!! Put it in your iPhone!). Oh, brain. You do love to get obsessed.
Grok The Vote
Oct 22It’s October, it’s an election year, and a lot of pundits are wondering, “Where’s the October Surprise?” Where is the game-changing enterprise story or force-fed press release that is going to blow the doors off of one of the two candidates – well, maybe more than two, because I know some people are going to vote for Nader and some people are going to vote for Clinton, and I do see a lot of those Roslin/Airlock tees around lately.
The October Surprise starts right here, next Monday. All week, leading up to what Bill Jemas would likely have called U-DECIDE ’08, the Alert Nerd brain trust is going to be rolling out the nerdiest, geekiest, election coverage you can find in the entire universe. Take that, Colbert! We’re calling it Grok the Vote (after the official Alert Nerd ‘zine for the attractive intelligentsia which I know you’re already an avid fan of, right?)
We’ll probably talk about Star Wars a good bit. And Trek. And Lex Luthor. And maybe Dune. So yeah.
