w00tstock: Comic Con Edition

One of my top 3 events at Comic Con this year has to be the w00stock 3.0. The Better Half and I saw a w00tstock in Portland last year and it blew my mind -- I had no idea how much live, nerdy goodness could happen in one place in one night.

If you haven't heard about w00tstock yet, the basic idea is 3+ hours of music, stories, and video shorts focused on nerd culture. Musicians Paul & Storm organized this round in the geek capital (for 1 week a year), also starring Wil Wheaton (Eureka, Leverage, The Guild, and of course STNG) and Adam Savage (Mythbusters). Each version of w00tstock mixes up all the other players, sometimes including local/regional performers.

Version 3.0 featured ukulele & YouTube phenom Molly Lewis:

Mike Phirman (of Hard n' Phirm):

And video shorts between acts, like Axe Cop (art by a 29 year-old; story by his 5 year-old brother -- it's awesome):

Others too, but I don't have links or names to all of them.

I laughed my butt off for so long my cheeks hurt when I left.

I've already vowed to the Better Half that if there's a w00tstock to be seen on the West Coast (perhaps further if time/money permits), we're there. In the words of Paul & Storm's classic "Frogger! The Frogger Musical:"

Now that you have got my back
I see a new plan of attack
And suddenly the path is clear
The way to get to there from here

From the turtle to croc to stump
Getting closer with every jump
We reach the end somehow
Then I look in your eyes
And now I’m home…

(Lighter's/cell phones waving in the air)

Screw it, since I'm on "Actors of Star Trek" kick this evening, let me round out with this gem, also meant to be posted on Friday.

Are you watching The Big Bang Theory? I hope so. It's TV especially made for geeks, and relishes appearances from geek guest stars. One of my favorites from this season (at least so far) was the appearance of Wil Wheaton, young Ensign Crusher from STNG.

Here's a series of great clips from the episode guest starring Evil Wil Wheaton:



On Friday,Wil posted word on his blog that Evil Wil Wheaton will be returning to BBT and it seems for an episode that will still air this season. I'm thrilled! I love seeing Wil back on TV, between this and the Guild (and wasn't he in an episode of CSI in the last few years?), I've got a lot to look forward to this year.

The Guild

I caught the cold that is going around and it sucks. It especially sucks because I have no pay channels (HBO, Showtime) let alone extended cable (SyFy, FX, TNT, TBS, Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, you get the point). I also watched all my Netflix DVD's and caught up on all the shows I'm watching from both my DVR and Hulu by Sunday afternoon. Honestly, I'm not even sure I could rattle off what all I saw during my congested stupor.

But one thing stood out. As I cruised the Netflix instant play programs, I saw something new in the recommended list: The Guild. Netflix summarizes it as a:

Web series about a quirky group of gamers who take part in all sorts of heroics online but are far less skilled at navigating real life. (Felicia) Day plays Cyd Sherman, a young woman whose virtual-world obsession has led both her boyfriend and her therapist to dump her -- at the same time that her cyber-friend circle, or "guild," has begun to acquire a life beyond the Net.

I wish I was watching more web-based series, but between the TV, DVDs, books, movies, and hours of endless Internet re/searching, I just haven't gotten that far. So I apologize if I am late to the game on what could be an Internet sensation and didn't know it.

You may recall Felicia Day from another Internet sensation, Joss Whedon's "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog." I loved this one to no end and will probably make an excuse to rewatch it again soon because I HAVE to write something about it here.

Anyway, Felicia Day wrote and stars in the The Guild as Codex, a member of a small online gaming guild, which I'm pretty sure is supposed to be World of Warcraft. It appears the show is such a hit that they are also making a comic book of it (Day writes it, of course).

While I'm sure my friend Erica will appreciate this webisode even more than me, I thoroughly enjoyed The Guild. It's super low-budget, has great, quirky characters, and some funny dialogue. Most of the characters are so pre-occupied with their in-game lives that they've neglected their "real" lives. However, the game brings them together out-of-game where their relationships get more interesting -- after all, who we are online isn't necessarily who we are in the physical world.

Seasons 1 and 2 are available on Netflix, and it looks like quite a bit of it is on YouTube (though personally, I like being able to watch it all at once on Netflix, but that's me). I haven't pinned down Season 3 yet, but am happy to see that Wil Wheaton guest stars in several episodes.

One more clip, mostly because it shows the Intro with all the great avatars. And because I love Zaboo.

I love, love, love the discussion between Codex and Zaboo about the T1 line toward the end of this clip.

Addendum: Season 3 is available on watchtheguild.com -- and it is awesome.

Good Stuff on the Interwebs Today

I think I have about 12 browser windows open right now, with all kinds of awesome randomness from those series of tubes that are pretty much my life-blood at this point.

I just posted the Star Wars Valentines, but wait! there's more!

Over on Wil Wheaton's blog, he posted this link to a new Big Bang Theory t-shirt with a quote in Klingon from the episode he guested in as "Evil Wil Wheaton." You can read what Wil learned about comedy from that experience here.



Then, over on Laughing Squid there is a great Muppet video featuring Beaker (my favorite!!) covering "Dust in the Wind" a la You Tube style. I love the Muppets and will do a longer post about them sometime soon. Still threatening to buy all the DVDs of the old episodes because I am 5 and they still amuse me.



Next, just in time for Halloween (via Brian Lynch), there are some new "sexy(ish)" new Sesame Street costumes coming out this year. I'm not sure what to think about this, but I love that Costume Craze has a blog dedicated to costumes. Genius. I think I will be spending some time later today checking out the new Avatar, Clash of the Titans, and "sexy" Wolverine costumes. Because those titles alone intrigue me.

There is ton on the wire about the Google Buzz announcement yet, but I need to do more research on that before commenting.