The Vendy Awards began as a fundraiser for the Street Vendor Project, a non-profit that ensures vendors have legal representation and advocates to immigrant vendors. For the past seven years, the awards have rallied together some of the finest food trucks in NYC to duke out their sidewalk culinary prowess on Governors Island. In recent years, there’s been a growing number of vendors and attendees who’d make the 100mi trek up to the five boroughs, until now.

This year we were delighted to have our very own Vendy Awards, judged by our own local all-star judges. We spent the afternoon in the Piazza at Schimdt’s enjoying wonderful food from Guapos Tacos, Cucina Zapata (Winner: People’s Choice), GiGi and Big R Soul Food (Winner: 2011 Vendy Cup) and others while hanging out with some of Philly’s finest. Important to note that our Philly Vendy Awards benefited The Food Trust, a local non-profit that committed to ensuring that everyone has access to affordable, nutritious food.

Check out our photos from the event and keep your eyes peeled around this time next summer for this super-fun event benefiting a good cause.

Johnny Zito & Tony Trov

The Harvey Awards are held annually at the Baltimore Comic Con (August 20th-21st) and have been going strong since 1988. Honoring outstanding achievements in comics in more than 20 categories, this year’s nominations tout 4 Philly locals vying for the respected award.

Nominated for Best Online Comic Work are Geekadelphia’s dear pals Tony Trov, Johnny Zito and Christine Larson. Their edgy comic LaMorte Sisters garnered a lot of buzz at Zuda and now subsequently Comixology and has earned them a nomination alongside such big names as Scott Kurtz and his infamous series PVP (Kurtz also happens to be the Harvey Awards Master of Cermonies for the award presentation!).

Also local to Philadelphia and nominated is indie comic god Charles Burns for his work on X’ed Out. His nom is in the “Best Original Graphic Novel” category and this GN seems a bit of an artistic departure from the woodcut style that Burns popularized with his seminal work, Black Hole.

Voting is open to those professionally involved in the any facet of comics, so if you fall into that category then get thee over to the Harvey Awards web site and place your vote for Philly’s own!

The awards will be held on August 20th and while you may not be able to vote, the dinner and presentation is open to all fans of comics.

Harvey Awards
August 20th – 21st
www.harveyawards.org

This Thursday, July 15th, our friends over at Locust Moon Comics are hosting a special book release party for acclaimed artist Steve Walker. His latest graphic novel, The Sons of Liberty: Death & Taxes, hits stores via Random House tomorrow.

Death and Taxes is the second in a series of four Sons of Liberty books, and “follows the continuing adventures of Graham and Brody, two escaped slaves making their way to freedom in post-Colonial America.

Flavored by unexpected touches of the supernatural and illuminated by Mr. Walker’s uniquely kinetic and sweeping take on historical fiction, the story delivers on its promise of a two-fisted, adventurous thrill ride through early American history.”

Steve Walker will be meeting fans and signing books from 8pm to 11pm at the West Philadelphia comic book shop. Drinks and hors d’ouevres will be provided. Be there!

Death & Taxes Signing @ Locust Moon
Thursday, July 15th
8pm – 11pm

Locust Moon Comics
4040 Locust St. (19104)

You probably won’t run through a tunnel 28-Weeks-Later-style. It’s nice to dream though.

Do you enjoy the occasional 5K run? Do you like to party like it is the end of the world? Most importantly, would you prefer to keep your brains in your skull and out of the gnashing jaws of a cerebrum hungry zombie? Then you need to prepare…and what better way to do that than to Run For Your Lives!

Run For Your Lives is the first-of-its-kind 5K obstacle course complete with zombies gnawing at your heels. You will need to run, jump, dive, and crawl to make it out alive. Just imagine how much time you could shave off that high school track record if you had the walking dead chasing you!

If you survive the 5K ordeal and make it through the finish with all your limbs intact you can still stick around for the Apocalypse Party featuring undead (that means live) bands, an awards ceremony for the survivors, and lots of stuff to buy with Nukacola bottle caps. Cause the dollar is worthless after the zombies eat our government.

For $67 you get a snazzy tee shirt to use as a bandage for your zombie bites, a racing bib, a medal (survivor or zombie depending on if you still have your brains at the finish line) and admittance to the Apocalypse Party.

The apocalypse starts on October 22 just outside of Baltimore, MD. For more information, visit the official website.

I spent two weeks with the Samsung Focus Windows Phone, Microsoft’s thinnest smart phone running the Windows-powered mobile operating system. The phone was clearly engineered with users in mind who communicate through social platforms. Boasting a gorgeous four-inch LED display, the Samsung Focus has a 1GHz CPU and 8GB of internal storage under its compact hood.

The five-megapixel camera has native zoom and flash capability. Navigating on the Windows Phone is a cohesive, side-scrolling experience that’s actually quite refreshing. The software has a keen sense of responsiveness and reaction time while typing on the keyboard was just remarkably accurate.

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This is a Bingo game?

Get ready to join the newest, most secretest party when the Underground Rebel Bingo Club descends on Philadelphia! This is not your grandma’s bingo.

What is Rebel Bingo you might ask? Well even we’re not sure how to answer that question except that it involves made-up rules, alcohol, loud music, dancing way too hard, pandemonium… and bingo. With chapters of the Underground Rebel Bingo Club as far as Ibiza, this is your exclusive chance to be part of the mayhem.

The mayhem will take place at a secret location on July 15th from 9pm until they kick you out. You can only find out the undisclosed location if you click “attending” on their Facebook event page.

Tickets range from $4 – $10 or you can win them here! Just leave a comment about your favorite rebel and we’ll pick a winner for free entry to this awesome event. Good luck.

Please come dressed like this. Please.

Don’t forget, Broets in training, tomorrow there’s a Broetry Slam at National Mechanics, sponsored by your friends here at Geekadelphia and Quirk Books. Over 50 folks have RSVP’d on Facebook. You should too.

Much like a Poetry Slam, we’ll be inviting members from the audience onto the microphone at National Mechanics to read their prepared (or spontaneous!) Broems. Manly poetry.

A panel of expert judges will select the winners and award them appropriate, bro-like prizes. Xbox Live Points, tasty beverages and noms, a manly mini library, high fives, Bruce Willis DVDs… we will have a fine array of swag to dish out to the best of the Broets.

Shmitten Kitten will be there as well, judging a contest of her own… for Best Bro. Come with your collars popped and your hair blown out, as we’ll have awards for the best overall costume. If you aren’t in costume and just so happen to win the award… well, we apologize.

The champion of the evening will be awarded the title Broet Laurette of Philadelphia, and we’ll publish your brilliant poem (and a video of the performance!) on here and Quirkbooks.com.

Broetry Slam @ National Mechanics
Friday, July 8th
www.nationalmechanics.com

Shareef Jackson loves him some spaceships, and NASA took notice.

The West Philadelphia resident is one of 150 of NASA’s Twitter followers that’s been invited to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a two-day Tweetup, taking place July 8th and 9th. They’ll be at the final launch of Atlantis before the space shuttle program is retired.

These 150 folks will be tweeting history as it happens. You can view a full list of the tweetup attendees here, but really, why bother? Follow the Philadelphian.

Jackson will be interacting with shuttle technicians, engineers, managers, and event the astronauts over the next two days. He’ll tour the Kennedy Space Center and watch the launch from the media area. I’m looking forward to a lot of Twitpics, Jackson.

Atlantis is scheduled to launch on July 8th at around 11:40am, on mission STS-135 to the International Space Station. Follow Jackson for real time updates. I know I will!

For more information on the NASA Tweetup, visit NASA’s official website.

Transformers: War for Cybertron was, hands down, the biggest surprise in gaming for me last year. Despite all the hype surrounding the title, I had serious doubts. Blogs, print magazines, Twitter… everyone was fussing over this title, and I didn’t want to hear any of it. I mean, come on, have you played any of the other Transformers titles? Transformers: The Game or Revenge of the Fallen? Of course you haven’t, why would you do that to yourself?

However, with Gears of War-esque, third-person-shooter style gameplay, an intriguing canon-approved storyline, fluid controls and surprisingly good voice acting, High Moon Studios did the impossible… they redeemed the Transformers franchise in the world of gaming. And now, one year later, they’ve released Transformers: Dark of the Moon, a tie-in to the likely terrible (I’ve yet to see it, and probably won’t) film.

There’s a rule when it comes to most movie-game tie-ins… and that’s that the game is always disappointing. Not entirely so with this one. High Moon’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon isn’t a terrible game. In fact, I’d say its a rather great one. Unfortunately, the game is so short and lacking in features, that its hard to justify the high price tag. (more…)

Print by Doug Larocca of the Autumn Society

Art is a funny thing. Where one person can see one thing, another might see something completely different. Take the ocean, for example. Some might just see water. Others might see life. Still someone else might see the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Art is all about interpretation and this July Philly will get to see over 40 artists take on the subject of the ocean and water all for a good cause at the From Whence We Came art show.

Running from July 8th to August 10th at Benna’s Café with a reception on Friday July 8, artists from across the country will use a variety of media to make the ocean their own. The show is in support of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Oceana, two charities which are all about protecting the world’s oceans and they will be receiving all the proceeds from the event.

You can find out more on their Facebook page and then you can go check out some great art for a great cause.

Benna’s Cafe
1236 South 8th Street (19147)
(215) 334-1502
www.bennascafe.com

Washington, not Costanza, of course. He was born in Virginia, died in Virginia, but this Summer, George Washington will be all over Philadelphia.

On Thursday, the National Constitution had a sneak preview of their new exhibit, Discover the Real George Washington: New Views from Mt. Vernon. This press and members only also included a beer garden complete with (delicious) period appropriate food, so OBVIOUSLY Geekadelphia was on the spot. Nom.

The exhibit was everything you would want in a museum exhibit. Interactive, touch screen info centers? Check. Mechanized replicas? Check. Wax figures straight outta the uncanny valley? Check. The false teeth of someone who has been dead since 1799? Obviously.

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It’s no secret that I’m obsessed with British sci-fi. So, when Geekadelphia had the opportunity to speak with Arlene Tur from the upcoming season Torchwood; I jumped on it. If you don’t know about Torchwood then, 1.) we’re not friends, and 2.) it’s all on Netflix so get to watchin’.

The new season entitled Miracle Day opens with a simple concept; What if everyone in the world stopped dying? As Captain Jack would willingly tell you, “Take it from someone who knows. Not being able to die… SUCKS.”

Arlene Tur has some exciting things to say about the new season without giving away the juicy details, but it was enough for me to jump up and down with giddy anticipation.

Torchwood is a BBC series, so not many Americans are aware of it. Could you describe the show for our American audiences, and why should they watch it?

Torchwood is a secret service in England that basically is in charge of keeping the people unaware and safe from extraterrestrial activities. They have the top technology, and supernatural things are going on all around them. What’s different about this, is that the show itself isn’t just sci-fi, because a lot of things in the hospital. It’s a hospital show, a secret government agency show, and a sci-fi show. There is also comedy in there. I feel like this is a show that everyone can enjoy.

This season marks the return of John Barrowman (Jack Harkness) and Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper) but now features Bill Pullman, Mekhi Phifer and yourself. Do you feel these American actors will bring something different to Torchwood?

What I think is exciting is– for the first time on a TV show we’re actually COLLABORATING. Instead of the Americans taking the English material and turning it into a more “American” show, Starz is saying to the BBC; look, you really know what you’re doing. Let’s collaborate!

So it’s both of us working together versus what they usually do, and just take what’s there and just basically do it word for word. I feel like this is so smart, and it’s going to bring a lot to the table. It’s going to bring both styles that are obviously successful and they’re going to be united. I’m really excited.

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