Guest Post by James David Saul

In the early hours of the day when the coffee hasn’t kicked in yet, it’s a struggle comprehending reality, let alone Accuweather data. Fortunately, the forecast comes alive with Weather Doodle for iPhone and iOS, which turns a boring weather outlook into a visually pleasing forecast that’s fun to check up on.

When it’s nice out, the rays of the sun playfully rotate around a charming, construction paper sun. For more wintry mixes, grey clouds hover over the landscape and expel a dusting of questionable precipitation.

In the app, you can switch between a “Current” view and a five-day forecast, with the ability to toggle extra information like wind speed and humidity. Also, you can store multiple locations just like the native Weather app for iOS.

Weather Doodle is the product of Tiny Mammal, a one-man software shop run by Graham McDermott. McDermott is a veteran of the gaming industry, working as an audio engineer for Lucasarts and Telltale Games. He’s the guy who would make sure the sound of Jango Fett’s footsteps would sync up with gameplay in “Bounty Hunter”. Now he’s living the dream running his own software company.

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What can I say? Here on Geekadelphia, we like our cars.

Last year we were part of the Fiesta Movement. You might have seen us, driving around town in a super fancy decked out Ford Fiesta, throwing parties, giving away iPads to Sean Blanda our loyal readers at events, hosting movie screenings, etc… all in the name of an automobile we liked. And just last month, Mikey Il took a spin in the brand new Chevy Volt, thanks to their PR team reaching out to us.

Well, our love affair with Chevy continued, blossoming into a week-long loan of a brand new Chevy Camaro. Equipped with all the fancy gadgets you could want (XM Radio, Bluetooth everything, heated leather seats, a HUD display), it was one hell of a nice car, and we were thrilled to have it for a few days. And by we, I mean Mikey.

Mikey was fortunate enough to zip around town in the car for a week. He took some photos, Tweeted about his experiences, and perhaps, most importantly, drove us to White Castle.

There aren’t any White Castles in the Philadelphia area, so a long drive was required to score those tasty little morsels known as Sliders. We shot a video of the fun. You can see the inside of the car, watch how it handles, and at the end, experience the thrill of watching my girlfriend pretend to steal the car, leaving us abandoned in New Jersey.

Big thank you to Chevy for unofficially sponsoring our trip to White Castle. Those burgers were delicious.

Scott Derby, a tattoo artist local to Philadelphia (he’s in West Chester), creates some awesomely geek-tastic tattoo designs, and shares the flash images on his Deviant Art page.

You’ve Got Red On You, an awesome Shaun of the Dead inspired illustration, caught my eye immediately. This next one…

Han Shot First, made me fall in love with Derby’s work. Bravo, good sir.

Thanks to Todd Coleman (@todd_coleman) for the heads up. Your pal does some great work, Todd. Tell him we said hi.

Naked Derby [ Deviantart.com ]

Growing up, Tony Todd was a very familiar face, from Star Trek, to Candyman to Pokemon. February sees the release of his newest genre entry Hatchet 2 and in support of that he took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to talk about everything from being a horror icon to his gaming hobby.

Word is you’re very thorough when it comes to preparing for your roles. What is that process like for you?

No matter what kind of film it is, I do a lot of scene breakdowns and I try to figure out what my character is in terms of what his point of view is, how he feels about the world and his relationship to his ego.  Once I have that and I know what my objectives are in the scene, I try to color it with sensory impressions that color the character.

It’s very important to me how the character stands, if he is grounded in the world and I let it fly from there.  With a good director once you have all that you can bounce that off whether certain dialog is appropriate, needs to be edited or needs to be enhanced.  So it becomes a very collaborative process for me and that is what keeps it interesting from role to role.

Did you know when you were shooting the first film that you would be one of the main protagonists in the sequel?

I absolutely did. I didn’t know it would be as big of a role as it was, but I knew that the role would be expanded.  That was one of the selling points when I first agreed to do the cameo in the first one.

Low and behold with Adam being a man of his word, and coming from the fan base, he honored that trust.

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Just a note, before we begin our regularly scheduled blogging: a resplendent, prodigious, writerly thank you to Eric and you Geekadelphs for pushing APIARY so close to our Kickstarter goal. Geekadelphia’s donation of winter ad revenue will make it possible to donate issues to schools, publish new issues including a DVD of spoken word poetry (!) and build/host a lovely, functional Internet hub for reading and meeting homegrown Philly writers of all ages.

Poets, with all their feathery pens and solitude, might not strike you as a particularly tech-savvy group. But Al Filreis, poet-in-chief at UPenn’s Kelly Writers House, just laughed out loud at me when I suggested as such. What about Flarf – a whole new genre Google search poems? Or “spoetry” – sonnets crafted from spam e-mails’ fabulous nonsequiturs?

Filreis himself homebrews the successful “PoemTalk” podcast in the garret of the Writers House on UPenn’s Campus, convening 3 local and visiting poets to talk about a poem by a 4th. In PoemTalk, along with some local poetry Facebook groups and CA Conrad’s loopy, beautiful Jupiter 88, a “video-journal of contemporary poetry,” Philly poets are using tech to pop the lid off an often-hermetic art form.

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Comments Closed! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Last year, we teamed up with Gillette to giveaway hundreds of the new Pro-Glide razors. Seriously. Hundreds. They had to refill our giveaway widget twice, and consequently, I got quoted talking about the product in GQ Magazine. Awesome.

So when Gillette wanted to team up for a Valentine’s Day giveaway, of course I said yes.

Gillette’s put together the Perfect Gentleman’s Guide to Valentine’s Day, a package chock full of everything you’ll need to craft an amazing Valentine’s Day for that special someone in your life. The package includes…

• $100 AMEX gift card to pay for the romantic dinner – take ‘em somewhere nice!
• A heart-shaped box of chocolates to enjoy after
• Gillette Fresh + Clean Body Wash in two new scents, Arctic Ice and Cool Wave that extend just-out-of-the-shower freshness beyond the shower
• Gillette Odor Shield antiperspirant and deodorant to provide odor protection in the most high pressure situations

That’s right. You can win $100, some chocolate, and some nice smelling body wash. So you’ll be clean, have extra coin to take your gal or guy out, and some gear for the shower to smell delectable.

How can you win? Leave a comment with what you’d purchase with that $100 AMEX card. Whether it’s a fancy night out at Del F*ck You & Your Pomme Frites Frisco’s or a gift that you’d buy and present during a romantic evening at home… let us know! I’ll select one of you at random, and Gillette will send the winner a prize… that you’ll get before Valentine’s Day.

Good luck, and Happy Valentine’s Day from Geekadelphia and Gillette. <3

I know, you’re sick and tired of all of this grimy discolored snow scattered around Philadelphia. You can’t stand the fact that you have to wait for SEPTA in near Artic temperatures, and you’re sick of slipping on black ice. I hear you. Like you I find myself daydreaming of sandy beaches and the unmistakable cry of a hungry seagull swooping in for my Wawa hoagie.

It’s only February, and I’m developing cabin fever. I feel the need to hear people shout, “Forget about it!” “How you doooin?” or just a simple “Sup Bro?” And then there is the unmistakable need to –shudder—fist pump.

Where can I find people arguing obnoxiously loud? Where can I spot a gigantic quaff, a blowout, or even a simple Ed Hardy t-shirt? Oh! Of course! I know where! South Philly!

South Philly Bar & Grill is “going GTL” with a weekly Jersey Shore viewing party. That’s right, they’re bringing the Jersey Shore to South Philly! Thursday nights from 9pm-midnight, South Philly Bar & Grill will offer up Jersey Shore food and beverage specials including $5 cocktails like the GTL-tini, Ron Ron Juice, the Jersey Juicehead, the Sticky Situation and the Beat the Beat Bomb. In addition to their full menu, the Wingman Wing Basket, Snooki Snack [3 pairs of buffalo chicken balls] and The Seaside Sliders will be available for $4 each.

What could possibly make it any better? Wait, did you say a look-alike contest? You bet your sweet ass I did! During commercial breaks, South Philly Bar & Grill will host a Snooki and Pauly D Look-alike Contest. Winners will each receive a South Philly Bar & Grill gift certificate and the runners up will each receive Budweiser merchandise.

Fans can also look forward to meeting Jeff Miranda, Snooki and Angelina’s former boyfriend and Season 3 personality, on February 10th when he will make an appearance at South Philly Bar & Grill.

The Comic Roundup for this week includes a look at the new issue of Irredeemable, the return of a classic team for the first Legion of Super-Heroes Annual and we celebrate Adrian Tomine publishing a new book.

Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #1
By Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen

There is a very short list of creative teams that every comic book fan knows; Claremont and Byrne, Wolfman and Perez, Bendis and Maleev. One other addition to that list would be Levitz and Giffen. These two are responsible for some of the most beloved Legion stories ever published. When it was announced that Levitz would be returning as the writer of the Legion, everyone started asking when Giffen would join him. This month we get our answer as the two work together on the first Legion of Super-Heroes Annual. Was it worth all the hype? For the most part, yes.

For the annual, Levitz and Giffen tell the story of the return of the Emerald Empress. I swear, it’s like the two never stopped working together. They just know how to bring out the best in the other. Levitz’s script is tight and fast paced and Giffen’s pencils do a great job of bringing the story to life. They manage to convey the unbalanced nature of this new Emerald Empress while showcasing each featured Legionnaire in turn. It may not be The Great Darkness Saga, but it’s nice to know these two can pick up like no time has passed at all and turn out a solid comic.

It is easy to see why Levitz and Giffen are considered one of the classic comic book creative teams. Like all the greats, they make it look easy. Let’s hope the two return to the Legion of Super-Heroes sooner rather than later.

Final Grade: B+

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Michael McGettigan has what some would consider to be a quaint hobby. Most of us haven’t used a typewriter in years, but we’re not that far along into the computer age that we can’t remember listening to the rhythmic hammering on the keys. Personally, I have fond memories of typing out funny stories with friends and not-so-fond memories of typing out papers for school on my grandfather’s typewriter. I couldn’t tell you what kind of machine it was, or where it is today. McGettigan, however, owns several typewriters and is behind www.phillytyper.com.

Following the success of the first Philadelphia Type-In, organizer McGettigan wanted to give the people what they obviously wanted. The gathering was a chance for typewriter enthusiasts to show off their pride-and-joys, try out each other’s machines, and maybe work out a swap. At this second event, the group discussed how they were bit by the typewriter bug and traded tales of typewriters loved and lost. Steven Rea told the story of selling his Hermes 3000 during a garage sale. Two weeks later, he was overcome with buyer’s remorse and bought it back.

Jon Roth, Jr. was there with his Royal, having been drawn to two facets of typewriters. First, the romance – visions of famous writers typing out their great works over their typewriters, war correspondents frantically writing up their reports from the front lines. Second, the history of their advertising – ads that promised happier secretaries or improvements in school grades and what they say about the consumer mindset of that time.

Check out www.phillytyper.com for more information and to hear about the next Type-In!

The simultaneous rise of streaming video and mobile phones has created a whole new market for entertainment; one that Northern Liberties-based Invincible Pictures is looking to make their mark on. CEO Tom Ashley’s team is developing a strong competitor to NetFlix, and I had the pleasure of checking out this giant-killer app.

FlixFling, Ashley’s brainchild, hits on needs in the digital landscape left unaddressed by Netflix: consumers demand more fluidity, flexibility, and accessibility of their content; Hollywood wants a more micro-transactional alternative; and with the decline of the brick-and-mortar video store, it becomes harder for independent films to reach an audience through standard channels.

Thus, FlixFling.

Like Netflix or VUDU, FlixFling caters to both casual viewers and the dedicated movie enthusiast. There is a $12.99 monthly-unlimited subscription plan, and non-subscribers can purchase 72-hour rentals priced from $1.99 to $3.99. Copies for a customer’s “digital locker” can also be purchased at $6.99 and $9.99, giving users the flexibility they want. And with account info stored in secure military-grade servers, renting movies is both safe and easy and allows the customer “to do what they want to do – watch movies,“ Ashley said.

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Heads up comic geeks, this Saturday, South Philly Comics will be hosting an art show with Kevin Colden, the writer / artist of the brilliant underground comic, Fishtown. Dustin reviewed it back in 2008, and still raves about it to this day.

The art show will run February 12th until March 10th, with prints of all the art pages from the book up for sale. Kevin will be there on the 12th, signing books, doing sketches, etc.

Stop by and meet a great artist!

South Philly Comics
1621 East Passyunk Avenue (19148)
(267) 318-7855

Guest Post by Talkadelphia’s Gino Barrica

For eight years, Judy Reyes played Nurse Carla Espinosa on Scrubs. Now, two years after she left the show, Reyes is making the film festival rounds in support of her new movie Gun Hill Road. We caught up with the actress and asked her about her new role and her time on the quirky medical sitcom.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, Judy. Tell us about your new film!

Gun Hill Road is in essence a family drama. Esai Morales plays a man who’s coming out of prison after 3 years and coming back to his old stomping grounds of the Bronx, Gun Hill Road to be specific. He’s committed to reclaiming and regaining his place in the family with his wife and his son only to find out that everything is completely different.

His wife is estranged, has changed and is struggling to stay loyal to him and to their relationship. His son is estranged as well, and not only that, but is struggling with a sexual identity crisis that is threatening to tear the family apart. The mom is trying to play the peacemaker between father and son while trying to maintain her own relationship with them. And who knows what has gone down while he was away, so even that is being threatened by his resurgence into the family.

I play the mom, Angela. It’s a very powerful story about a family trying to stay together through all of this struggle.

You actually are from the Bronx. How much did having that experience affect your performance in the movie?

You know, I grew up on a street that intersected Gun Hill Road called Bainbridge Ave from the age of 13 to the age of 25 or 26. After that I kind of moved back and forth as a struggling actress. So I’m very familiar with living in the Bronx and knowing what it’s like to come back to a place and wanting it to feel like home. It feels like a comfort blanket and yet it’s a place that completely changes. A place that gets you through and a place that lets you down.

To go back there as a native New Yorker and as a native Bronxite, and to shoot there was a fantastic way to dive into the character and really connect to that part of a grown woman struggling to keep her family together, stay connected to her child and rebound with a life partner that she’s hopelessly outgrowing.

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