Heads up documentary nerds, there’s a free screening of Olmsted and America’s Urban Parks at the PHS Pops Up Garden tomorrow night.

The film tells the story of Fredrick Law Olmstead, the man whose firm designed many of the parks in the Philadelphia region, including “FDR Park and Marconi Plaza in South Philadelphia; Pastorius Park in Chestnut Hill; Washington Square in Center City; and other portions of Fairmount Park.”

He’s also responsible with New York’s Central Park, but we don’t really care about that.

The screening kicks off at 8pm in the PHS Pops Up Garden at 20th and Market. For more information on the garden screening, as well as details regarding future events, visit their calendar at pennhort.net/phspopsupevents.

That’s right. After a two hugely successful Dollar Strolls in a row, Baltimore Avenue is at it again. This Thursday on August 4th, from 5:30 to 8:30pm, West Philadelphia’s Baltimore Avenue (b/w 42nd and 51st St) is the place for the third (of four!) Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll.

Fifteen different Baltimore Ave. businesses will have dollar specials all night long for you to enjoy, including $1 Dock Street pint glasses at Dock Street Brewery, a favorite haunt of Geekadelphia due to their fantastic Tuesday movie nights, and $1 hand printed West Philly notecards at VIX Emporium.

And then there is the food! There will be $1 specials available from Clark Park Farmers’ Market and both the Country Meadows Barbeque stand and Jose Garces’ Guapos Tacos food truck will both be in attendance. Plus, copies of the West Philly Mix Tape will be available for your listening pleasure, and it’s free!

If you are looking for a night out with friends or just a place to get a great bargain (or both) in the city’s University District, the Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll should be right up your alley. Plus, everyone knows a geek loves a deal! It leaves us more money to spend on video games.

Bring August in the geeky-tattoo-design way with the newest T-shirt from Teefury.com featuring Philly’s own Scott Derby! This time Derby pays homage to everyone’s favorite time travel movie Back to the Future and Doc Brown’s immortal line: “Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”

Derby is fast becoming Tee Fury’s MVP as this is his 4th design to be featured. At only $10 (+s&h), this shirt is priced for the budget minded geek. But act fast! This design is only available today, Monday, August 1st, until midnight.

Hit up Teefury now and snag your own (Doc goggles sold separately)!

Creepy crawly icky bugs! Touch them! Learn about them! EAT THEM! Yeah, I said “EAT THEM!” The Academy of Natural Sciences is celebrating Bug Fest with 2 great days of events August 13-14!

Beetlemania invades Philadelphia Saturday and Sunday, August 13th and 14th. What can you expect to see at this fun filled event? Well, not only will you see live insects, cheer on racing cockroaches, hunt for bugs, see the Academy’s world-renowned beetle collection, but you’ll also to eat cooked beetles! Yum!

This one looks particularly delicious…

Guests can also look forward to:

• Cajun Chef Zack Lemann, who will cook dishes like “beetle juice” and chocolate chirp cookies.

• Steve the Beeman, will grow a beard of live bees and share tips on this important pollinator.

• At the Ask A Scientist booth, visitors can ask questions and show photos of a bugs that they need identified.

• Lessons on how to collect and pin insects at buggy games and arts and crafts

• The Beatles!?! Beatles tunes will be performed by the costumed tribute band Britishmania of Cherry Hill. There will be two shows both days, at noon and 2pm.

The best part about Bug Fest? It’s free with museum admission! Bug Fest is held from 10am to 5pm both days. This is a great event for the whole family. So, bring your little geeks along!

Bug Fest @ the Academy of Natural Sciences
August 13th & 14th, 2011
www.ansp.org/bugfest

Academy of Natural Sciences
1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 299-1009
www.ansp.org

This week’s Geek of the Week is Joe Hallman, a local composer whose music inspires the imagination. Joseph has worked with some notable musicians such as, internationally acclaimed American cellist Alisa Weilerstein, poet Jessica Hornik, and Antwone Fisher. He has also composed for members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, and Cleveland Orchestra.

Geekadelphia got to ask Joseph some questions about his work and inspiration.

What started your love of music? What’s the first memory you have?

I didn’t come from a particularly musical household. My mom listened to the radio fairly often- Motown, Oldies, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Fleetwood Mac, etc. I think the most pivotal moment is that in which I bought an LP of Beethoven’s 6th Symphony at a flea market. I had heard the music on Fantasia (it’s the Bacchanal scene with the satyrs, etc.) and loved it. I listened to it all the time. It was probably my first favorite pieces of music- and still is, I suppose.

What was the most challenging thing about acquiring the musical education you use now to build your songs?

I was a pretty poor kid- so money for lessons as a kid was sometimes scary to think about. I remember my first audition for a scholarship at the age of 12 or so. I thought I had done so miserably and I would lose my scholarship to keep studying and I just bawled my little head off for a day. It turned out fine of course. Money was always tight as a kid and classical music was/is pretty much an elitist’s hobby. Not sure how I transferred that into my process now. I guess it taught me the tenacity and chutzpah to dream big and follow through on the things that were important to me. Everything can be achieved. (more…)

Live in or near West Philly? Want to spend the summer nights listening to the sweet sounds of an eclectic groups of musicians? Well, the Penn Museum is the place for you as July sees the return of the PM @ the Penn Museum, their summer music series.

Every Wednesday until August 24th at the Penn Museum’s Warden Garden you will have the chance to experience 10 completely different musical groups and be able to check out the Warden Garden to boot. (more…)

The week I give you the all Marvel edition of the Comic Roundup as I look at the new issues of Journey Into Mystery and New Avengers and give Captain America #1 the once over.

Captain America #1
By Ed Brubaker and Steve McNiven

I really wanted to hate this comic. I have written about my dislike for renumbering in comics many, many times. And Captain America has come to represent everything I hate about it. It is the poster child for comic book renumbering. And I really wanted to be able to write about how this comic is garbage and this is what’s wrong with comic books today and blah, blah, blah…. (more…)

If you have been following Geekadelphia’s Geek of the Week, then you already know all about Lis Boriss and her webcomic Broken Plot Device. For those who haven’t (and you call yourself a geek), Broken Plot Device is the story of Lizardbeth, her group of friends and the apartment building they all live in. The comic falls squarely into the Furry category as all the characters are anthropomorphic animals including as lion, a wolf and a dragon. It is a very funny, very cute comic that you really need to be reading.

But for those that prefer their comics on dead trees, Lis has just published her third Broken Plot Device collection, Epic Sharktopus. It collects the entire third year of the comic and consists of some of my favorite storylines, including the Attack of the Killer Robo-Rex toys, the return of Dr. Gaimen Washe, roller derby fun and Lizardbeth’s experience in artist alley at a comic con. (That last one hit a bit too close to home after my own time in artist alley at Wizard World a few years ago.)

Sure, you can read them online for free, but I have always found that webcomics, especially ones with continuing storylines like Broken Plot Device, read better in one sitting. You can really get into the characters and truly appreciate some of the best artwork you will ever see in a webcomic. Broken Plot Device vol. 3: Epic Sharktopus will make a great addition to any bookshelf and I highly recommend it.

Broken Plot Device: Epic Sharktopus [ Lulu ]

Plate of Love by Hanna Santhi

Hilary Sedgwick and Kenny Kim, two (recently engaged!) local creative types with a penchant for photography and design are the founders and creators of the Masterpieces Made Simple Gallery. The MMS Gallery is a showcase for everyday folks who capture great pictures with their mobile phones, with each showing focused on a particular theme. I caught up with Hilary and asked some questions about the project while she prepared for the next gallery opening… which focuses on food!

Tell me about the MMS Gallery! Where’d the idea come from? How did you get it started? How does it work?

The gallery idea came to life one night over beers. Kenny and I were sitting in Prohibition Taproom and we had been talking about technology and the iPhone; nerding out basically. I am not sure what the exact cause of the idea was but I know by the end of the night Kenny and I were trying to figure out what the next steps were to make this idea a reality. From working at O3 World, I knew there was an empty space in front of the office that was perfect to hold the gallery shows. All we needed to do was develop the brand, get the website up and try to generate some public interest to get the shows going.

MMS stands for Masterpieces Made Simple, but it was also a play on words. MMS was a nod to photos being taken with a mobile phone but reworked to honor the concept behind the gallery, the idea that everyone is an artist. As mobile technology continues to evolve, so does the medium’s relevance in the art world. Some would consider it a travesty to think of the mobile phone as a means to create art. We celebrate it. Moments that were once overlooked or bypassed because a person didn’t have a camera can now be captured and shared because of emergence of phone technology. It’s these moments that nurture relevance regardless of whether the person who captured it considers themselves to be an artist or not. (more…)

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)

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