The Chernobyl Diaries is yet another entry in the ever expanding reality horror sub-genre. This time the set-up is almost a mash-up of Hostel and Paranormal Activity with a group of 6 young American tourists going to Chernobyl for an “extreme tour” of the devastated post meltdown city. Things go wrong, of course.

The film is the directing debut of Bradley Parker who worked as a visual effects artist on films like Fight Club and Let Me In. The film writer’s have credits ranging from the original Paranormal Activity and the classic Titanic 2.

We have 50 passes for two to check this film out this Thursday, May 24^th at 9:00pm at the Ritz East Theater. Want to go? Simply go to www.gofobo.com/rsvp and enter the code GEEKADNYTQ. It’s first come, first served. Once they are gone they are gone. In the meantime, check out the trailer below!

Be aware you will not be allowed to bring in cameras, camera phones, or other recording devices into screening, so leave them in the car. Seating is on a first come, first serve basis. Theatre capacity is limited and passes won do not guarantee seating. So please show up and line up early, this is a highly anticipated film and the screening will be packed so be warned.

Some people love fantasy. Then there are people who are so utterly enmeshed in it that they’ve gone so far as to bring it to an academic setting (where it belongs – am I right?). One of those people is Philadelphia’s very own Dr. Donald Riggs, who will be teaching a course this summer on A Game of Thrones at Drexel University.

The course, simply titled “A Game of Thrones,” will explore the differences and similarities between the first book in the series and the first season of the HBO series based on it. It will be offered through the Pennoni Honors College on Thursday afternoons from 2:00 to 4:50. It promises to be just as epic as the tale it focuses on.

Dr.  Riggs

This is not the first time Dr. Riggs is teaching a class this rad. He often teaches whole courses on Lord of the Rings, and, in fact, he’s also teaching a course this summer on The Hobbit. Several years ago, he ran Tolkienfest, an entire day of celebrating the work of Tolkien, here at Drexel University.

My favorite class I’ve ever taken with him was centered around Dune (yes, it was glorious). I’ll be sitting in on as many Game of Thrones classes as I possibly can this summer.

For more info, visit Drexel University’s official website.

Guest Post by Mike Fenn

A week before Wizard World begins moving in, the Pennsylvania Convention Center will host another geek event, a “double strike” if you will. On Friday, May 25, from 10AM until 9PM, a “Magic: The Gathering” tournament will be held, sponsored by West Philadelphia’s Redcap Corner. It will be the first such event since Redcap’s recent move to their current Lancaster Avenue location.

The tournament is a Pro Tour Qualifier and will thus require a $25 fee to play. Smaller tournaments will be held at Redcap’s Corner itself on both Friday and Saturday.

For more information, head to the PA Convention Center’s events page.

Blip Festival New York is upon us and between May 25th and the 27th, the Gramercy Theatre is going to be full of 8-bit artists from around the world to show off their circuit bent wares and a musical and visual masterpieces. Organized by 8BitPeoples since 2006, Blip Festival shows off the latest and greatest that the chip tune community has to offer.

Philly is familiar with the retro sounds of 8-bit music and because of 8 Static, this city has become a veritable breeding ground for a new brand of musicians using old Nintendos and a bit of ingenuity to create some groundbreaking sounds. Three local artists in particular have been invited to perform at this auspicious event.

Chipocrite can be found all over Philadelphia writing intricate compositions with a gameboy and a bass for the likes of 8 Static, GameStop ads, and Lebowskifest Philadelphia. We also love him because he was kind enough to cover a rockin’ version of the Game of Thrones theme for the first annual Philly Geek Awards. He’ll be sure to treat the New York chip tune scene to some incredible songs.

“Beauty from corruption, destruction from chrominance” is that mantra of Chromacle, a digital and video artist who can sometimes be found here in philly delighting eyeballs at the monthly 8 Static over at Philly MOCA. His clever amalgamation of shapes, colors, and lights adds incredible depth to 8 bit sounds coming from vintage gameboys and the odd NES.

Enso is another visual artist lending some lights to the sounds of Blip Festival. His low-res atmospheric shows are a hit here in Philadelphia and will be sure to dazzle everyone at the Gramercy Theater and possibly put them in a psychedelic trance.

Our home grown 8 Static veterans will be sure to blast the roof off of the Gramercy and it would be a shame for you to miss out on their audible exploits.

Tickets range from one day passes to the full three day shebang. You can snag them here. Also make sure to check out the schedule so you can go cheer on our local 8-bit extraordinaires!

This week in the Comic Roundup I review Nightwing, which this month ties into the Night of the Owls event, the return of Youngblood, the title that launched Image, and a comic book that is all about the fighting, AvX Versus.

Nightwing #9
By Kyle Higgins, Eddy Barrows and Andres Guinaldo

When the titles in the New 52 were announced and it was revealed that Dick Grayson would be returning to his Nightwing persona after a time as Batman, I was thrilled. He is one of the more fully fleshed out heroes in comics and I was glad the spotlight was going to be fully on Nightwing again. But I had no clue when the Court of Owls storyline began that it was going to elevate Nightwing to almost equal status with The Batman, which has been a long time coming.

See, in the Court of Owls, storyline, it has been revealed that the Grayson family has long taken the role of the Court’s lethal assassins, the Talons. Dick Grayson was supposed to be one of them, but fate stepped in and changed the plan. Now, in this Night of the Owls tie-in issue, Dick has to fight his great grandfather to save the Mayor of Gotham. Over the course of these events, Higgins and Batman writer Scott Snyder have made Dick Grayson a character with equal weight to Bruce Wayne, something that writers have been struggling to do for decades. He has officially stepped out from under Batman’s cape and become a stronger, more prominent hero in his own right. The icing on the cake is the art by Barrows and Guinaldo, who do some great work and make the revelations of the issue all the more powerful.

If you haven’t been reading Nightwing, start. Now. Continue Reading…

Hey geeks! You like Philadelphia, right? Sure you do. And beer? Yeah, thought so. How about cupcakes? Uh huh. Well have I got a deal for you. Take a look…

Beer Cakes is the result of a girl who loves cake, loves beer, and loves going to breweries with her Dad…  After a couple fresh pints and some good pub food, I always wanted something sweet and was disappointed at the lack of dessert on the menu.  So I began to develop some recipes.  What I came up with was a way to make cake that tastes like beer!

Using the amazing craft brews that Philadelphia has to offer, I put beer in both my cake and my buttercream.  What makes every craft beer unique is the flavors and spices that are used to brew them.  I play with those same ingredients in my recipes to bring out the beer’s flavor. The result is an amazing dessert that has savory and sweet notes that will tickle your taste buds.

While you can check my website (www.beercakesphilly.com) to see a list of the flavors that I’ve created so far, there are so many more awesome Philly beers that are just waiting for me.

Right now Beer Cakes Philly is only a wholesale or special order business, and though it’s going very well, I want to bring my cakes to the masses. I want everyone in Philly to have the chance to stop in for a beer cake!

My bakery won’t look at all the way you would expect a bakery to look.  You will most likely walk in and think you’ve entered a dive bar.  My cakes are about the beer, and the shop should be too.

I see local art on the wall, eclectic decorations, wooden tables that you can carve your name into, old tin signs, white christmas lights… can you picture it?

I imagine my Beer Cakes Philly storefront everyday, and with your help I’ll be able to wake up every morning and actually live the dream.

We’ve all had sweets made with beer before, but made to actually taste like the beer itself (and its special ingredients)? That’s new. And she’ll be open late, so when you’re leaving the next Geekadelphia / Tatooed Mom’s Halloween Extravaganza, you’ll have somewhere to go! Pony up.

The Project: Beer Cakes Philly

Creator: Lexi Malmros

The Sweet Spot: A measly $25 gets you six pack of cupcakes from the shop. Way better than any actual sixer you could pick up for that price. Know a real hophead? Drop $100 and you can get a novelty cake or two dozen of the little guys.

Funding Deadline: June 16th, 2012

More Info: Learn more on the Kickstarter page, on the Beer Cakes Philly website, or over on twitter.

Every Monday Geekadelphia features a Kickstarter created by locals. Check ‘em out and support our local geek scene. If you have a project that you’d like featured on site, contact geekadelphia@gmail.com

What if you could use science to make sure that your significant other is the one? That is the premise behind the romantic comedy Losing Control, a film by native Philadelphian Valerie Weiss.

The story of the movie follows a young scientific protegee who is trying to get results from her long term experiments as well as her long term boyfriend by using the scientific method. The cast includes Miranda Kent and Reid Scott and the film is written and directed by Weiss.

She explains that the genesis of the film came to her while in school.

“While I was in grad school I wondered what would happen if a woman in her 20’s could understand science and use it to her advantage in gaining control of her love life,” Weiss explains. “It made me wonder what if you could use your brain to make sure you have an everlasting romance.”

Losing Control is playing at the Landmark Ritz at the Bourse starting through May 24th and Weiss will be holding a Q&A session after the 7:30PM shows through Wednesday.

So head out to the Ritz at the Bourse, support a Philly native and learn all about better love through science.

Losing Control @ the Bourse
Now through May 24th, 2012
400 Ranstead Street Philadelphia, PA 19106
www.losingcontrolmovie.com

Inside the Wagner

We all use electricity every day for almost everything we do (just try to charge your precious cell phone without it) but we almost never think about where it comes from. Luckily, there are people a hell of a lot smarter than us who do know and are willing to share.

On Wednesday, May 23rd at 5:30 PM, the Wagner Free Institute of Science will present their last Weeknights at the Wagner lecture, “Electrifying Philadelphia: Pageantry, Progress, and Power in the City Beautiful.” Dr. Aaron Wunsch, a lecturer in Penn’s Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, will talk about how Philadelphia first began using electricity, its advertising and how it spread to other parts of the area.

The lecture is free and open to the public with a Members Reception following afterwards. And just think; the next time the power goes out, you’ll be able to regale everyone with stories of how electricity first came to Philly to keep people entertained. Win/win.

Electrifying Philadelphia
May 23rd, 2011, 5:30pm

Wagner Free Institute of Science
1700 West Montgomery Ave. Philadelphia, PA 19121
(215) 763-6529
www.wagnerfreeinstitute.org

Because someday… this could be you.

All your life you have dreamed of working in advertising. So you went to school, got your degree, graduated and now have a kick-ass portfolio you are just dying to show off and can’t wait to get your career as a creative professional off the ground. Or maybe you worked in advertising, but with the economy the way it is, got laid off or downsized and are looking for an opportunity to start over and get the creative juices flowing again.

Now, for the tenth time, Portfolio Night will descend on Philadelphia and give aspiring copywriters, art directors and designers the chance to network and show off their portfolios to creative directors from some of the city’s top agencies. Done in a “speed dating” format, you will be able to have your portfolio looked at and reviewed by directors from the city’s top design firms, make connections and get valuable feedback.

So put the finishing touches of your portfolio and be at Lincoln Financial Field (West Club Level) on May 23rd at 5:00 PM. The cost if $30, but experiences like this are really invaluable. And who knows, you may walk away with that creative job you have always dreamed about.

Portfolio Night 10
www.portfolionight.com/10

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Selecting the best mobile internet provider has become a tricky business, as there are so many operators offering a myriad of deals for you to wrap your head round. Contract lengths are getting longer and longer, with providers wanting to lock you into a contract for as long as 2 years. Finding the right deal has therefore become quite a complicated task.

Here are some tips for fining the best mobile internet deals. Continue Reading…

On this month’s episode of the Geekadelphia Podcast Jo and Dan sit down with Melissa from Operation Nice to explore her pursuit for niceness everywhere. We also talk about some up coming events in Philadelphia, and how we’re excited for this year’s Geek Awards.

You can also right click and save as the file, here. Listen to it on the go, while you’re jogging, whatever. Enjoy!

Operation Nice
www.operationnice.com

Follow Jo Pincushion @JoPincushion
Follow Dan Tabor @danthefan

Photo by Beau Roulette

Back in high school, a few friends and I painstakingly taught ourselves how to play Pardon Me and Drive on acoustic guitars, in attempts to impress girls. I mean, why else do you pick up an acoustic guitar? Ten years later, and I’m still listening to (and poorly playing) songs by Incubus.

So needless to say, I was pretty thrilled that I had a chance to ask Brandon Boyd, the lead singer of Incubus, a couple of questions. They just toured through the area (some of you might have caught them at Penn’s Landing) and are playing in Camden tonight.

Fun fact, Brandon not only spends a lot of his time writing music, but he also paints and writes books. And as a serious book and publishing geek, I asked him some questions about his literary and artistic pursuits.

So along with your music career, you paint, you’re into photography, you’ve written books… how do you manage to find a way to balance all of your passions?

I like to follow muse wherever she goes! Sometimes she wanders into bookish moods, sometimes into noise and I am compelled to organize notes and words into song, then occasionally she will sing to me from the backside of a camera. I made it sound a lot more esoteric than it actually is; I just really enjoy making things. Pulling thoughts, moods and landscapes out of the ether! There I go, back to the esoteric.

Speaking of those books, what are some of your major literary influences? How have they affected your writing?

A few of my favorites are Henry Miller, Tom Robbins, Robert Anton Wilson, Kurt Vonnegut, and William Burroughs to name just a few. Continue Reading…