This Thursday, January 19th, the Academy of Natural Sciences is hosting the first-of-the-year Urban Sustainability Forum on “many [of the] current efforts to make Philadelphia more pedestrian-friendly.”

The experts attending will talk about ways our lovely city can continue to improve how walkable our streets are, and offer up “various health, economic, and environmental benefits to its residents.”

Speakers include:

Bob Thomas (Moderator), Founding Partner, Campbell Thomas & Co. Architects; Trail Designer
Bradley Flamm, Assistant Professor, Department of Community and Regional Planning and Research Fellow, Center for Sustainable Communities at Temple University
Joseph Otis Minott, Esq., Executive Director, Clean Air Council
Dom Nozzi, Adjunct Professor, University of Colorado at Boulder; Urban Design Consultant
Debby Schaaf, Senior Planner, Philadelphia City Planning Commission; Chair of the Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Task Force

You can register for the event for free here on Eventbrite. For more information, visit the Academy of Natural Sciences’ official website.

Walkability: Philadelphia Strides Into the Future
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Networking Reception: 6:00–6:30 pm, Program 6:30–8:30 pm
phillywalks.eventbrite.com

There’s a memorable scene in the “Tricks and Treats” episode of Freaks and Geeks in which an English teacher berates her young students for doing book reports on titles like the novelization of Star Wars and Al Jaffee’s Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions.

When I heard the name of the latter title announced, a knowing smile crept across my face — in fifth grade I too wrote a report about the book that was received pretty much the same way. I’m sure I’m not alone. You see, that paperback introduction to the wonderful world of sarcasm has been a schoolyard staple since it was first published in 1975 as a spin-off of Jaffee’s popular Mad feature.

While the aforementioned snarkfest remains my personal favorite of Jaffee’s works, there is no doubt that his greatest contribution to the magazine — and pop culture in general — is the Mad Fold-In. Since 1964 the interactive joke has been closing out each issue of Mad, and each and every one of these gags has been written and illustrated by Jaffee. As the decades have progressed the publication has withered into an edgeless shell of its former self, yet the Fold-Ins have remained sharp and hilarious.

At the age of 90, Jaffee’s wit and talent continues to inspire fans and contemporaries alike. So it is something of a profound honor to have him visiting the Gershman Y this week. Joined by biographer Mary-Lou Weisman (author of the insightful Al Jaffee’s Mad Life), the cartoonist/humorist will be on hand to discuss his work as well as his childhood in which his family fled from their home in Lithuania to the U.S. when Hitler ascended to power.

If you attend, expect to hold court with a true living legend. And if you decide to ask him a question, make it a good one or prepare to suffer the humiliating consequences…

Al Jaffee @ The Gershman Y
Tuesday, January 17th at 7pm. $8 to attend/$22 to attend & receive an autographed copy of Al Jaffee’s Mad Life.

The Gershman Y
401 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147
215-446-3022
www.gershmany.org

Reboot your auditory sensor modules with 8 Static.

The year has been reformatted and a new operating system has been installed. Your robot ears are in need of some nourishment. Don’t worry, 8 Static is back to reboot your brain with some amazing chiptunes. On January 14th, 8 Static will once again be vibrating the floors of Studio 34 with the rumble of 8-bit rocking.

This month features the audible stylings of Burnkit2600, a trio guys that compliment their circuit bent silicon instruments with drums, bass, and occasionally a flute. They bring a mash up of funk and psychedelic sensibilities to delight of your aural receptors.

Ever wonder who is straddling the chasm between punk and chiptune? Ponder no more because Graffiti Monsters are will be here to rock your face off with some classic 8-bit sounds wrapped up in a punk rock duvet. A duvet is punk right?

Maybe you prefer your 8-bit music a bit more thunderous, frenetic, and only made with a Gameboy Color. Enter Kool Skull. With nothing but a Gameboy, this guy will rattle your positronic brain within that bone casing you call a skull. And you will like it.

To delight your eyeballs, local artist and 8 Static veteran visual magician, enso will be on hand to provide an amazing light show.

As always, each show is preceded by a workshop showing you how to bend vintage hardware to your musical will and generally become a chip tune hero. This month’s is being presented by our friend Paul Weinstein AKA Chipocrite who created a rockin’ version of the Game of Thrones theme for The Philly Geek Awards. Before the show, he’ll show you some live Gameboy performance techniques.

Hopefully that will include how to play The Legend of Zelda theme behind your head with your eyes closed.

8 Static
Saturday, January 14th, 2012
7:00pm at Studio 34 – all ages!
$8 / $5 with RSVP right here!

Photo via the Philly Metro

This Sunday, Philadelphia’s version of Improv Everywhere’s No Pants Subway Ride will gather at City Hall for a two hour ride that crosses the city and confuses the hell out of commuters.

Pantsless riders will take the Orange Line South to Ellsworth from City Hall, then transfer and came back up North to City Hall. After that, they’ll hop on the Blue Line (with pants still off) and head up to 69th.

Want to join in the fun? Concerned about the legality of something like this? Visit the event’s official Facebook page for details.

Good luck, and please, wear cute underwear.

Cinematic Titanic is coming to the Keswick Theatre New Years Eve-Eve (Get tickets here!), and in preparation for that I got to chat with the man himself behind both Cinematic Titanic and Mystery Science Theater 3000, Joel Hodgson.

The Godfather of Movie Riffing was nice enough to impart on me not only some of his philosophy on riffing,  but the origins of MST3K and what goes into putting together a show like Cinematic Titanic.

I hope you enjoy this behind the scenes conversation about probably one of the greatest shows in all of geekdom .

For the people who may not know, what is Cinematic Titanic and how did it come about?

Well to know what Cinematic Titanic is you first have to know what Mystery Science Theater 3000 is.  I actually have to explain what MST3K is a lot.  Whenever I meet people and they ask what I do, I never presume they know, because it was a cult show.

I basically say, it’s the show where they run bad movies and they super impose little silhouettes at the bottom of the screen; who say stuff during the movie. Then if they are familiar with it they usually brighten up a bit or they just matter of factly say, “no I have never seen it.”

Cinematic Titanic is the original cast of MST3K and we have our jokes all setup and we riff on a movie based on the success of MST3K. That is what I usually say at that point, so the people who haven’t heard of it at least know it’s successful.

Is there a reason you tend to choose more obscure films to riff on than some of your contemporaries?

There is a couple of reasons, the first being cost.

People like Rifftrax are doing it and they just have to put their voices in. I have seen other people do that too where you don’t know who they are, you just hear talking. I guess you could do that, but to me that is only part of movie riffing. The other part is your physical presence; what you’re doing when you’re riffing.

I think people do that, it’s my impression that they think it’s a marketing thing.  That if you have seen this movie you might want to see someone riff on it.

So we don’t really do that. I see MST3K and Cinematic Titanic working another side of the street.

To me what I think people like about MST3K and Cinematic Titanic is that we show movies they haven’t seen before. So it’s kind of like a new place, which is part of the value and mystique in it. So we are a lot like your tour guides in this place.

Take something like Manos: The Hands of Fate, when I watch that show it’s not even my favorite riff. But because the movie is so strange and unusual, it just has this bizarre attraction for people.

(more…)

Toy Story taught me that whenever no one is looking, children’s toys come alive. That thought is terrifying, just like the weeping angel statues in Doctor Who. I’ll have to recruit my friends to take shifts staring at my old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figures. Don’t you dare call them dolls.

Some say this is an irrational fear and the only way to conquer such a fear is to face it head on. There’s no better place to be surrounded by old toys with questionable pasts than the Antique Toy Convention in Philadelphia. I’m going to overcome this one way or another!

The Antique Toy Convention shared the same space as the Pennsy Flea Market. When I initially walked in, I was thrown off by the Michael Jackson impersonator dancing by the CDs. True story. I eventually found the Antique Toy Convention tucked away in the corner of the flea market and after paying my $5 ticket I knew I was in the right place.

Bins of random action figures sat under tables laden with glass cases full of match box cars. Every vendor’s table reminded me of my old toy boxes. I did my best to respectfully rummage through their wares and not dump out entire bins onto the floor like a 7 year old at their friend’s house looking for a cool toy. It was tough.

Since there were plenty of people there to keep an eye out, I wasn’t too worried about toys scurrying around the displays or hitching a ride in my bag in order to make their way to their previous owner. In fact, I was reminiscing the good times I had with toys. I swear that some of my old toys my mom threw out ended up at this place. I wanted to buy all of my old toys back and show my mom in defiance. I’m too old for toys, you say? Ha!

The convention allowed me to peer into the world of people passionate about collecting toys. I overheard a story of one man’s quest for Mars Attacks trading cards that paralleled the quest for the Holy Grail. Overhearing conversations about the best way to showcase a toy collection in their home showed me there are toy geeks out there who are serious about these objects meant for children.

Toys are not alive, but they bring imagination to life. They won’t run around having adventures on their own, unless you want them to.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Gone are the days when the mark of a writer could be weighed in the stacks of thoughtful letters typed and shipped off (and then saved by the recipients for decades). But for those who still think an e-card just doesn’t cut it, there comes a movement with a more vintage aesthetic. In bars and coffeehouses across the country and closer to home dedicated typists are ditching their laptops in favor of Underwoods, Coronas and Remingtons.

This Saturday, local businessman Michael McGettigan will host the second annual Son of a Type-In, a jam session for manual typewriters and those who love them. From 1-4:30 p.m. Dec. 10, typers will gather at Bridgewater’s Pub inside 30th Street Station to share in a mutual love of manual writing, clack out some personal letters (in snail-mail form, obviously) and have a beer while swooning over the collection of analog machines.

Using an acoustic guitar affects what music is being played; same with a manual typewriter, writes McGettigan, owner of Trophy Bike Garage in Northern Liberties. Hand typing produces output that appears permanent and polished, yet fallible. It creates an actual artifact that can be immediately examined, mailed, filed, given away or crumpled in a ball and arced into a trash basket.

This weekend, unplug for a while and show the world that typewriters are following vinyl records out of the grave. A
speed typing competition comes with a sweet prize: your own manual typewriter. If you’d rather take it slow, McGettigan will supply stationary, stamps and envelopes to write your own holiday greetings (or love letters).

The event is all-ages (children should be accompanied by an adult) and free if you bring your own manual typewriter and/or a stamped envelope. There will be a limited selection of typewriters to use, if you don’t have your own; just RSVP to phillytyper@gmail.com to save your space. For more info, visit PhillyTyper.com.

Le Fits: Which one is Ben? *shrug*

Take a break from your busy workweek with Nerd Nite Philadelphia on December 7th. Nerd Nite is a chance for Nerds to come together and listen to presentations, cavort among the Nerds, and drink some quality beers. Nerd Nite will take place at Frankford Hall (the corner of Frankford and Girard). Doors open at $7:30 pm.

Nerd Nite will be presenting three different lectures from Brett Cohen, Allison Tumarkin-Deratzian, and Scott Beibin. These presentations will discuss free will, bone histology and dinosaur biology, and Quantum Transdimensional survival. How’s that for interesting topics? There will also be music by Ben Reisman of Le Fits, with food and drink specials: $6 for a beer and a pretzel, and $8 for a beer and a sausage.

Cover is $5, and there is plenty of seating at Frankford Hall! Make sure you get there and put on your learning caps!

Christmas. A time for family, friends, Hobos with Shotguns and the Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence.

Wait… what?!

Yeah, you heard me. The Philadelphia Film Society, full of yule tide cheer, is sponsoring a 3 week long film extravaganza at The Troc entitled Bloody Christmas. The series will consist of 4 films over a 3 week period, and kicks off this Tuesday, December 6th with an event they are calling the Human SANTAPEDE. Do you see what they did there?

They will be screening The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence in all its UNCUT glory and if you wear a Santa Hat, you get a free drink token!  How is that for some holiday cheer? You get to see twelve people attached (CENSORED) to mouth and get a free drink. Who says the holidays aren’t about giving?

If that isn’t enough, December 13th they will be running a double feature with one of my favorite films to hit the screens this year Hobo With a Shotgun with Tucker & Dale VS. Evil. The final film will be the great Finnish film Rare Exports – A Christmas Tale, and that one will be coupled with a Bad Christmas Sweater Party.

This sounds like a lot of fun and a Christmas celebration I can totally get behind. The Troc screenings are 21+ and begin at 8PM with doors opening at 6:30. $3 at the door gets you in and goes towards a drink. Arrive before 7PM & get a free BEER & a bag of popcorn.

Its been almost 2 years since the Keswick Theatre hosted Cinematic Titanic on New Years Eve. Back in 2009 it made for a great night of riffing over an insane triple feature. Well they are returning this year, this time performing New Years Eve-Eve and riffing over a double feature consisting of The Astral Factor & Frankenstien’s Castle of Freaks.

In case you’re not familiar, Cinematic Titanic riffs to both the bad and the obscure in front of a live audience. The group is led by the original host of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Joel Hodgson and various other writers and cast as well. I was lucky enough to attend that show back in 2009. If you love bad movies and MST3K you really owe it to yourself to check this great show out!

You can get tickets from Ticketmaster here.

For all you comic book geeks and film fiends, head on over to National Mechanics on Sunday Dec 4th to catch an exclusive screening of the documentary Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts.

Geekadelphia’s fave comic shop Brave New Worlds has teamed up with Sequart and Respect Films to present this documentary which captures the cult fame that Ellis has achieved as a comic book writer and “internet Jesus”.

Captured Ghosts will begin at National Mechanics in Old City starting at 7pm. Tickets for this one-time Philly viewing are $7 at the door, or better yet stop by Brave New Worlds ahead of time to pick up your ticket and pick up Transmetropolitan, my recommended reading for this event. This event is not to be missed!

Captured Ghosts @ National Mechanics
Sunday, December 4th, 7pm
www.nationalmechanics.com

If you read Geekadelphia, chances are you’ve fooled around in Photoshop once in your lifetime. Weather it be your actual profession, or if you just like to Photoshop yourself into photos with Joseph Gordon Levitt (aka Friday nights) there is a Photoshop event in Philly for you! On December 1st the Adobe Photoshop Philadelphia User Group is holding an event designed to get you in the middle of the Philadelphia Design community.

The event begins 7:15 on the campus of Philadelphia University. Nathaniel Dodson and Tony Profeta will provide a presentation featuring Adobe’s brand new Touch Apps with demonstrations of the applications on an Android tablet. You can check out some of the Adobe touch apps ahead of time at the following links:

• Adobe Touch Apps
• Adobe Touch App Video Demonstrations
• Adobe Creative Cloud Overview
• Adobe Photoshop Touch Overview

The event will also include a presentation from Michele McKeone M. Ed. from the Autism Expressed project. She is an exciting social entrepreneur and recent graduate of the UArts Corzo Center program, and will present the challenges in creating and delivering the unique vision of Autism Expressed. The project aims to help students with autism learn to effectively use various social media platforms and digital software like Photoshop.

And finally, to close out the event Robert M. Hall from Feasible Impossibilities and the Official Adobe User Group manager for the Philadelphia Flash Platform Group will deliver a presentation summarizing Adobe’s recent announcements regarding Flash and Flex.

For more information visit Photoshopphilly.com