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.

The last couple of months have been busy for our friends at Titan Books as they continue to produce some amazing works focusing on artists who should be household names for fans of film and art, as well as branching out with new novels featuring classic characters of literature.

This time around they have re-released an updated collection of the personal artwork of Drew Struzan, as well as a collection of works of popular science fiction artist Chris Foss. Finally, they have also released a new Sherlock Holmes novel, The Breath Of God.

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When Evan and his team over at NextFab Studio emailed Alex Hillman and I regarding sponsoring a prize at the Halloween bash tonight, we of course said yes. That crew produces some really great stuff, and we knew they’d come up with something awesome.

We didn’t expect it to be THIS awesome though.

Tonight’s winningest mustache will receive a giant mustache hunting trophy, carved and mounted on a plaque by the folks at NextFab. The photo above is a snapshot of NextFab Studio’s Lewis Colburn, who also sports a pretty serious bit of facial hair.

Best of luck tonight, friends. See you there. And please check out NextFab Studios’ website, and follow them on Twitter. They are awesome.

Here on Geekadelphia, we love us some It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The bizarre and hilarious show shines a wacky spotlight on our fine city, and several of us have openly admitted to having a man crush on Charlie Day.

Me? I love the show so much that it has become a traditional gift. Christmas, birthdays, Valentine’s Day (if the lady is a keeper), Easter… you bet your ass you’re getting a season of It’s Always Sunny on DVD.

But as the amount of friends who now own It’s Always Sunny grows, I find myself in trouble. What do I buy them? There’s no way I’m going to pick up some tacky poster off South Street or some lame merch at FYE.

So, I’m off to Etsy.

I’ve rounded up my favorite It’s Always Sunny Etsy picks below. Have a look, and enjoy all the creativity. (more…)

Cipher Prime, the makers of the hit iPad game Pulse, have reason to celebrate. Their title has been sitting in the App Store’s top 10 list for iPad music games for 12 straight weeks. That’s a serious accomplishment for the mini indie game dev studio, located here in Old City, Philadelphia.

So, in honor of this accomplishment, they’re running a one-week only sale on their game.

Now through Wednesday, Cipher Prime has reduced the price of Pulse to $1.99 (60% savings over the regular $4.99 price). If you already own the game, great… now go tell your friends.

Here at Geekadelphia, we love our unconferences. BarCamp, PodCamp, SearchCamp, HigherEdCamp, Bar Camp News Innovation Sandwich Camp… seriously, they’re a blast. Great time, great people, awesome opporunity for networking.

But we realized that something was missing. There are tons of camps, but no unconference model to talk strictly about camps. What about the future of camps? Where are we going? How will we get there? Who will tweet about it? How will the Internet find out?

That’s why we’ve launched Camp Camp Philly. It’s an annual, one-day unconference on unconference innovation and the future of unconferences in an unconference format. The open-grid event aims to bring together like minded unconferences in a friendly, social environment. Here, they can sling buzzwords at people who actually understand what they mean, network with attendees, and send out passive aggressive tweets about one another through out the evening.

The event is free. You can learn more about it on the official Camp Camp Philly website. See you there.

Camp Camp Philly 2011
Friday, April 1st, 2011
www.campcampphilly.com

Yeah. This is happening.

In a press release issued by our friends at The Hacktory, the hacker space is hosting another (they did this before?) sex toy hacking workshop, inviting curious folks to come fiddle with a variety of naughty gadgets, “from DIY floggers to vibrators that vibrate in Morse Code.”

Maggie Avener of the Prometheus Radio project will start the workshop with a quick talk about a few of the projects she’s been working on, and then guests can share ideas and start work on their own projects. No technical know-how is necessary.

This clearly 18+ event at the Hacktory goes down (heh heh) on March 20th, from 1pm to 4pm, with the workshop running 1pm to 3pm. The entrance fee is $20.

For more information, visit The Hacktory’s website.

The Hacktory
1524 Brandywine Street (19130)
www.thehacktory.org

Here’s your fun Philadelphia fact for today:

“Many of the American maps published in the eighteenth century and the very early nineteenth give degrees of longitude measured from a Philadelphia meridian.” That’s right. The Prime Meridian, the main line of longitude, used to go through good ol’ Philadelphia, according to a 1942 edition of Geographical Review.

Part of the reason had to do with the fact that Philadelphia was once the nation’s capital, but another had to do with David Rittenhouse. That name’s probably familiar to you (Rittenhouse Square, David Rittenhouse Labs on Penn’s campus), and according to my less meticulous research on Wikipedia, Rittenhouse “was a renowned American astronomer, inventor, clockmaker, mathematician, surveyor, scientific instrument craftsman and public official.” He had an observatory in Philadelphia somewhere around 7th and Arch Street, and set up a meridian mark pointing due north from it to assist in observing the passing of Venus.

Following his lead, many maps made between 1749 and 1816 featured Philly as the Prime Meridian, but alas, it didn’t last forever.

In 1850, Congress passed an act that said Washington, D.C. would be adopted for all astronomical purposes and Greenwich in the United Kingdom would be used for nautical purposes. Further, in 1884, a bunch of people got together for an International Meridian Conference (the 19th century equivalent of Comic-Con) and decided all glory would go to Greenwich, who was awarded the title of Prime Meridian.

So while we may not be the Prime Meridian anymore, -75° W will always be home for us Philadelphians.

[Source] [Picture Credit]

Last week, I hopped a train to New York City to hang out with Chevrolet and Engadget. Turns out Chevy is rolling out a new in-car entertainment system that harnesses the appeal of smartphone tech, but with a slick and simple interface that appeals to geeks and soccer moms alike. The company announced the development live at Thursday night’s Engadget show at SIR Stage in New York.

We got a chance to get up close and personal with the cars at a media event in the morning, plus a ride in the futuristic prototype vehicle EN-V — like a Segway meets a helicopter cockpit meets a SmartCar. The best part: we scored some snazzy gear to give away. Read on to find out how.

Chevy MyLink is a clear response to connected entertainment systems already on the market, like Ford Sync, Toyota Entune, or even the simplified BMW Mini Connect app for the Mini Cooper. With both the increasing demand for connectivity and a trend in app-based systems, Chevy decided to pull existing applications and combined them into one smooth interface.

Check it out, geeks.

A touchscreen on the dash keeps everything together in a neat homescreen, just like your phone. Flip through apps and functions by touching the screen or from the steering wheel.

• Smartphone integration: MyLink connects with a slew of smartphones, like your iPhone, iPod, Android phone or Blackberry. Stream music wirelessly, make or answer calls, and juice up with the built-in PowerMat charging system.
• Apps, apps, apps: Thumbs up for Pandora! Listen to your favorite streams and vote songs up or down just like online. Use Stitcher to stream your favorite radio shows, news or podcasts. Your songs and playlists (and corresponding album art) will be downloaded, organized and displayed on the touchscreen library thanks to Gracenote.
• Voice recognition: Interact with the car without taking your hands off the wheel using advanced voice recognition provided by Nuance. Make calls, sort through hundreds of albums or get directions with voice commands. If you get really lost, the folks at OnStar can help — they’ve been with GM for 15 years now.

Consumers can scope the hyper-connected “infotainment suite” (their words, not ours) on the 2012 Volt and Equinox in early fall, plus additional models in the coming year, according Mickey Bly, GM’s executive director of vehicle engineering.

Now. Time for the swag. Leave a comment below with your suggestion for the best in-car entertainment system. We’ll pick a winner at random to receive a PowerMat system and a Pandora shirt!

Disclosure: Geekadelphia was not paid for this post and all opinions are our own. However, our blogger did receive free transportation.

Last week I had the pleasure of chatting with Shawn Smith, former video game journalist for EGM Magazine, and creator of the character design studio Shawnimals.

In the world of Shawnimals lies Ninjatown, featuring a wide selection of ninjas with their own unique story and design. Ninjatown has been everything from toys to videogames. You can even read about Ninjatown on your various Apple devices thanks to the Ninjatown: Adventures of Wee Ninja comic book App available in the iOS store.

I had the chance to talk to Shawn about his background, how Ninjatown came to be, and some of his favorite games from the past year.

For those not familiar with the world of Shawnimals or Ninjatown, could you tell me a little about its creation, as well as a little background information about yourself?

Shawn: Sure thing, Shawnimals is a character design studio that believes in the power of unbridled, astonishing, ridiculous joy. Each Shawnimal comes with its own story that starts in the Shawnimaland universe, but is then given over to you to continue each unique creature’s adventure in your own universe.

Our huggable friends appear as designer toys, lifestyle accessories, apparel, comic books, video games, and as anything that fosters companionship. We believe that the best artistic experiences are participatory and affordable, and that – with an open heart – friendship can happen between you and just about anything. Even facial hair.

We have a staff of four: Myself, my wife and biz partner Jen, Monte and Eric. And two rotating intern positions.

As for me: I’m the creative force behind Shawnimals, and started the company before I even knew it by watching cartoons, drawing pictures and playing video games as a kid.

Fast forward to my job at EGM magazine as a game reviewer (1996 – 2000), I made the difficult decision to leave and focus on my first love: Art and design. I had the opportunity to explore my various characters and the countless sketchbooks on my shelf filled with hundreds of unused characters. In a way, Shawnimals were born shortly after. Without a doubt I have pop culturally-inspired aesthetic: Simple, compelling character designs, strong narratives, and a healthy dose of humor. All of the stuff that makes great pop culture great.

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Contest Close: Thanks for Playing

The year is wrapping up, and we’ve got one final giveaway for you kids. This one is pretty fabulous.

We’ve teamed up with Redbox to giveaway a fantastic Blu-Ray Prize Pack, which includes a brand new Blu-Ray player (what!) and a year’s worth of free Blu-Ray rentals from Redbox… 52 free rental codes, one for each week of the year. This isn’t some lame knock off brand player either… it’s a Sony Blu-Ray Player (the BDP-S370), valued at $175.

Redbox is also running the Better in Blu sweepstakes, which allows Redbox fans from across the country to be entered in ANOTHER Blu-Ray Prize Pack giveaway, separate from the one on our blog, simply by renting any DVD or Blu-Ray disc from a Redbox kiosk. Just rent something, and BAM! you’re entered. The Better in Blu sweepstakes runs until December 31st, so you’ve only got three more days to enter at a Redbox kiosk.

Every rental is a chance to win. According to Redbox, “if a customer rents 3 movies in one day, they have 3 chances to win that same day. If they rent one movie every day for the entire 36 days of the giveaway, they have one chance a day to win.” There are plenty of Redbox locations around Philadelphia. Just use their website to locate one.

You don’t have to rent a Blu-Ray disc to qualify either. In fact, no purchase is necessary at all. Visit www.betterinblu.com to enter.

As for our contest, entering is simple. Tell us what movie you’d most like to watch in high definition. We’ll select one of you at random come the New Year.

Happy Holidays!

As the year draws to a close, I realize that a lot of my time was spent in Brave New Worlds buying a ton of comics, or just standing around talking to Brian and/or Rob. Before we ring in the new year I wanted to take a look back at some of my favorite comics throughout the year.  Some of which have been completed and collected into trades while others continue to roll out monthly, or if your Mark Millar or Grant Morrison, whenever you get it finished. So let’s get started!

1. Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour – Bryan Lee O’Malley’s awesome series concludes with Vol.6 and is without a doubt the best in the series.  After five books of Scott being hilarious and often at times an idiot, he evolves into a, dare I say it, mature adult. Looking back on his past interactions with his friends and family, Scott faces the reality of his actions. Not all of which were that heroic in fact. What may have been my favorite moments of the book were moments that happened off the page when Scott was so busy with his own problems, and failed to see what his closest friends were going through.

2. Batman and Robin – Bruce Wayne is lost in time, many people thinking he’s dead. In the wake of his absence, former boy wonder Dick Grayson takes the mantle of the bat, while Bruce’s son Damien, becomes the newest Robin. I really didn’t know what to expect from this book, but I got some of the best Batman and Robin stories I could have imagined. Not to mention the revolving door of artists such as Frank Quitely, Cameron Stewart, Andy Clarke, and Frazer Irving. Each bringing their own unique style to the story but never sacrificing story to show off their talent.

While the series is ongoing, I’d say you can’t get any better than the first 16 issues, which dealt with Bruce’s absence and the new dynamic duo working out their own personal issues to accept their new roles in protecting Gotham City.

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