The Autumn Society are at it again with yet another great throwback show, involving everyone’s favorite pizza eating, crime fighting reptiles the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Brave New Worlds once again sets the stage on Friday, June 3rd, from 6-9pm for another awesome First Friday. Expect some truly great renditions of all things TMNT, and a special guest appearance by the Turtle Van, which will be on site throughout the show!

You can check out a preview of the show on the The Autumn Society ‘s blog here. After checking out some of the great pieces that will be on display, I definitely can’t wait to see what else they have in store for the event. See ya there!

Brave New Worlds
45 North Second Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
(215) 925-6525
www.bravenewworldscomics.com

Already one of Zenescope Entertainment’s most prolific writers, this summer Raven Gregory takes it up a notch. In addition to writing every word of their big summer event, The Dream Eater Saga, he will also be launching his own creator owned property, Fly. Despite the crazy schedule, Mr. Gregory was nice enough to answer a few questions for me via email.

Grimm Fairy Tales: Myths and Legends has been a great read so far. It really comes across like an old fashioned horror film. Is that what you planned when you wrote the first arc?

We had always planned on Grimm Myths and Legends being a much darker take on the regular Grimm Fairy Tales flagship title. Having done the Wonderland trilogy I wanted to bring that same feel over to the new ongoing series, where readers could get a whole fleshed out story over a story arc that was a nice mixture of dark horror but still tied into the roots of the main series.

The initial story arcs have all been formatted in this new way so that not only can new readers jump aboard at any time and not be lost but long time readers will get the thrill of seeing the major pay off on where all this has been building since issue one of the main series.

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As a native of Atlantic County and a 7 year Philadelphia transplant, I am beyond pleased to learn that the local Philly startup, DrinkPhilly is covering their bases for weekend vacationers with the launch of DrinkJerseyShore.com.

After turning 21 in Philadelphia, the nation’s beer capital and living next to The Foodery, I lamented my first trip back toward the beach that summer, upon discovering the average swig in my hometown was Corona. Many bars supplied a laundry list of crappy domestic light beers — all significantly overpriced. This left me appalled… since when does being on the beach have to equate with terrible taste?

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Photo by Su1 Root

We’re getting ready for Lebowskifest on June 4th! We’re very excited for this event, especially the pre-movie performance by Chipocrite. He’ll be performing songs from the soundtrack using his 8-bit audio technology from his Game Boy. We had a chance to sit down with Chipocrite and ask him some questions about his unique musical stylings.

When did you get the idea to incorporate Game Boy with your music?

I first learned about “chip music” in about 2004 or 2005 when a friend of mine introduced me to a Japanese group called YMCK. I was fascinated by it and obsessed with the sound and concept. I totally wanted to do it myself, but I had no means to learn how they were doing it, and it just seemed way too complicated and scary. A few years later, my interest was re-sparked when I learned that a scene was developing right here in the U.S. involving. Artists like Bit Shifter and Animal Style were creating similar music with Game Boys, and even though I still had no idea how– it seemed a little easier to. Fortunately for me, Philadelphia was developing its own great chip scene, and some of the people involved started hosting a monthly event called 8static in West Philly. The very first 8static I attended featured a short pre-show seminar on how to get started using Little Sound DJ, and that 15-minute presentation was enough to get me hooked.

So I went home that night, bought a license for LSDJ, downloaded it and a Game Boy emulator to run it, and got started right away. Eventually, I got the necessary hardware, flashed the software onto a writeable Game Boy cartridge and was working on the actual console. The obsession grew from there, and I quickly discovered that I didn’t just enjoy the sounds of the old video game chips — I also just really connected with the software as a songwriting tool. I’ve been attached to it ever since.

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It’s almost here, Geeks. Lebowski Fest Philadelphia. We’ve been working with LiveNation and the Lebowski Fest founders this year to make this one hell of a fun event. Over the next few days expect a bunch of ticket giveaways to pop up on other local blogs, some fun posts on here (including a Q&A w/ Chipocrite), and some quality post-event coverage here on Geekadelphia. Come dressed to show what a big fan you are, Lebowski lovers. You might just end up on here.

Mark your calendars, kids. RSVP on Facebook. Are you out of the loop? Shy on the details? Well here’s the deets on this two festival, thrown at the Theater of the Living Arts and North Bowl.

Friday, June 3rd @ the Theater of Living Arts
The first day of Lebowski Fest. Features a screening of the Big Lebowski w/ chiptune sensation Chipocrite playing songs from soundtrack, remixed into 8-bit chiptunes. Doors open at 8pm, show kicks off at 9pm. A dance party and a chance to see the film on the big screen? Awesome. Unlike a lot of the screenings we’ve held at other venues, this event is ALL AGES. Win. $15 in adv, $18 day of.

Saturday, June 4th @ North Bowl
What would Lebowski Fest be without bowling? Visit Northern Liberties’ North Bowl for the bowling bash. Guests can look forward to bowling, trivia, contests, and more. This event is 21+, and runs 8pm to Midnight. $25 in adv, $30 day of.

Want to win a pair of tickets to the screening / dance party at the TLA? I’ve got three pairs to giveaway, entitling you and a friend entrance to the party on Thursday. How can you win ‘em? I’ll make it easy on you. Just leave a comment about who your favorite character from the Big Lebowski is and why. I’ll select three of you at random early next week.

Good luck! For tickets and more information, visit Lebowskifest.com

Dust off that old Gameboy because it is time to make some music. Chiptune is an up and coming music genre that repurposes all that old video game hardware you have cluttering up your attic. Take all those nostalgic sounds from your childhood and rock the black rimmed glasses off of the masses.

There is a gathering of chiptune musicians every month in West Philadelphia. Studio 34 is a yoga studio by day, but one night a month it strains to contain the 8-bit madness of 8Static, a gathering of local and touring chip musicians.

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In Return to Wonderland, Alice’s daughter Calie learned the truth about Wonderland and what it did to her mother. In Beyond Wonderland, Calie did her best to leave the memory of that place behind, but to no avail. And now in Escape from Wonderland, Calie goes back down the rabbit hole to reclaim what is hers.

Now available in softcover, the conclusion of the Wonderland trilogy is upon us. Raven Gregory and Daniel Leister return to wrap up the story of Calie Liddle and Wonderland in spectacular fashion.

Gregory turns in some of his best work to date, ratcheting up the tension and horror as Calie attempts to find her daughter and leave Wonderland behind for good. All your  (more…)

GameLoop Philly was held Saturday, May 21st at the University of the Arts, hosted by the Corzo Center and sponsored by Comcast Interactive Media.

Two floors of the Terra Building were taken over by over 75 local (and a few not-so-local!) members of the video game industry. The inaugural event went from nine am to six pm and boasted a total of 20 sessions throughout the day with attendees from Philadelphia as well as Baltimore, New York, New Jersey, and Boston.

GameLoop is an unconference (like BarCamp, or Eric Smith’s favorite, CampCamp) in which the attendees suggest the topics and moderate the talks themselves.

Sessions included “Misconceptions of Programming Languages,” “3D Environments and Lighting,” Agile Development Methods/Feature Creep,” and “Prototyping.” The “keynote,” so to speak, was “State of Games in Philly,” which had a big crowd of people discussing what can be done here in our great city.

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Oh Philadelphia, home of the Phillies, cheese steaks, and ironically mustachioed dudes on fixed-gear bicycles. I for one, ride a fixed gear and have a beard, but do not consider myself a hipster, which I suppose makes me a hipster in your eyes, or something like that, but I don’t care what you think, I’m just going to listen to some band you’ve never heard of. Poser.

Ahem. Sorry about all that. Back on track, Hipster City Cycle recently came out on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod and it’s about damn time. I’ve been anxiously awaiting this game since I first heard of it about a year ago, but it was worth the wait. The game was made in Philadelphia, by Philadelphians, for the whole world to enjoy– just like cheese steaks and representative, federally balanced democracy.

The game is centered on Bingham, known to his friends as Binky, who rides around the city being a sweet dude and not getting hit by cars. As soon as you start playing you will recognize him from just about everywhere here in town. The game play has that nice blend of comfortable but novel. Tapping in the corners will make Binky pedal, tilting the phone steers, and to do a track stand you balance the phone carefully (mess up and your foot hits the ground, which is a major blow to your cred, if you know what I mean.)

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Philadelphia’s Pecha Kucha is back, and features talks by plenty of local tech / new media leaders. Presenters include the Onion Philadelphia, Bluecadet Design Studio, the Science Leadership Academy, Philadelphia SiteNite, our good friends Indy Hall, and our arch-nemesis, Technically Philly.

Unfamiliar with Pecha Kucha? “It’s rapidfire creative show-and-tell governed by a simple rule: show 20 PowerPoint slides, talk about each one for 20 seconds. Devised by Tokyo architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham, Pecha Kucha (say peh-CHAK-cha) events have been held in more than 200 cities.”

For more information, visit Pecha Kucha Philadelphia’s official website.

Pecha Kucha Night Philadelphia Vol. 8
Saturday, June 4, 2011, $5
www.pecha-kucha.org/night/philadelphia

Studio 34
4522 Baltimore Avenue
www.studio34yoga.com

In today’s Geek of the Week, we talk to Chris Illuminati, celebrated author of Assholeology and Assholeology: The Cheat Sheet, out via Adams Media.

He’s also well known for his popular Message in a Bottle blog, articles in countless magazines, and for being a surprisingly stand-up gentleman, despite his book titles.

Hey Chris, how about you tell me a little bit about yourself.

Well, let me give a super brief overview of how I got where I am; which is in my career, not how I got into my office wearing boxers and a wife beater. That’s a different story.

I always wanted to do something creative, and writing was something I was good at, but I think more because of imagination than anything else. It was very easy to write how I talk which is great for storytelling but awful for grammar. I did writing for personal enjoyment and to pass the time at many, many crappy jobs I had out of college. I also wrote long emails to friends as a way to pass the time.

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MC Front-a-lot at Nerdrage Last Year, Photo by Kyle Mistry

Our favorite (and possibly only?) Nerdcore artist, Zillapersona, is throwing another Nerdcore showcase in July, and needs your help to make it happen. He’s raising money for his second showcase via Kickstarter, and there are some really fantastic rewards for donating, thanks to Cipher Prime.

Cipher Prime (makers of Auditorium, Fractal, and Pulse) donated copies of Auditorium as a reward on the Kickstarter campaign page. Back the Nerdcore showcase for $10, and not only will you get a copy of Auditorium, you’ll score a ticket to the show (same cost of a ticket at the door) AND the Pulse soundtrack. Win.

For details, visit the Kickstarter page.