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.

While Drew Struzan’s Ouevre may seem like a sequel of sorts to Titan Books’ other book on the work of Drew Struzan, it is actually the first book of collected work of the famed artist best known for his movie posters for films like Back to the Future, and the Indiana Jones series. This re-release of Ouevre isn’t a page for page reproduction, far from it. It contains newer pieces of artwork such as Drew’s poster for The Walking Dead, and an introduction written by his wife Dylan.

Included are finished pieces from films he’s worked on as well as some of his earlier album cover illustrations which, of course, are nothing short of amazing. The book is split into five chapters, each focusing on works that many may know from music and film, publishing and commercial works, and finally a peak into Drew’s personal illustrations that show a different style than most people would expect from him. With just about 300 pages of stunning art, Ouevre is certainly a purchase for fans of Drew Struzan or just good art in general.

Hardware: the Definitive SF Works of Chris Foss is another collection of artwork but unlike Drew Struzan I had no idea who Chris Foss was. After going through the book multiple times I’m still kicking myself for not knowing of him sooner.

This retrospective of Foss’ science fiction  career features artwork that’s been featured on the covers to Sci Fi stories written by Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick, as well as a section devoted to his time working on Alejandro Jodorowsky’s version of the scifi epic Dune. Jodorowsky writes a forward praising Foss’ undeniable impact on science fiction art.

When you look through the book for yourself, you’ll have to agree.

Finally we have Sherlock Holmes The Breath Of God written by Guy Adams. It’s a new adventure featuring the famed duo of Holmes and Watson that I absolutely loved. The synopsis  is as follows:

The nineteenth century is about to draw to a close. In its place will come the twentieth, a century of change, a century of science, a century that will see the superstitions of the past swept away. There are some who are determined to see that never happens.

A body is found crushed to death in the London snow. There are no footprints anywhere near it. It is almost as if the man was killed by the air itself. This is the first in a series of attacks that sees a handful of London’s most prominent occultists murdered. While pursuing the case, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson find themselves traveling to Scotland to meet with the one person they have been told can help: Aleister Crowley.

As dark powers encircle them, Holmes’ rationalist beliefs begin to be questioned. The unbelievable and unholy are on their trail as they gather a group of the most accomplished occult minds in the country: Doctor John Silence, the so-called “Psychic Doctor”; supernatural investigator Thomas Carnacki; runic expert and demonologist, Julian Karswell…But will they be enough? As the century draws to a close it seems London is ready to fall and the infernal abyss is growing wide enough to swallow us all.

The Breath of God is a brand-new original novel, detailing a thrilling new case for the acclaimed detective Sherlock Holmes.

There you have it! Three Titan Books releases all available right now. I can’t recommend these books enough and with the holidays lurking around the corner, they may be great gifts for friends and family.

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.

1. It’s Always Sunny Pixel People: “Join The Gang at Paddy’s Pub! Featuring Dennis, Mac, Dee, Charlie, and Frank, our stitched tribute to “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” is a quick and easy project for fan in your life (or for you, that’s cool too)… this listing is for a PDF file of the pattern.”

2. Philly: Come for the Crack T-Shirt: If you’re going to get a douchey South Street t-shirt, might as well get one that’s screened by hand. Right?

3. Kitten Mittons Print: A print inspired by one of my favorite episodes. “9″ x 12″ portrait of Charlie Kelly of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia by Lila Gonzalez. Give it to your sister. Put it on your wall. Impress your friends and relatives. Intimidate your cats.”

4. You Pullin’ My Dick, Bro: Hilarious embroidery, one of my favorite quotes from the show. Honorable mention also goes to this Wild Card, Bitches! needlepoint by the same Etsy seller. Well done.

5. Danny DeVito Colorful Print: Have Frank hanging in your living room.

6. It’s Always Sunny, Biblical Style: “The cast of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” find themselves in biblical times involved in the Nativity scene! The Three Wise (Mac, Charlie & Dennis) bring a cheesesteak, Philly blunts and beer to Baby Jesus (Frank) and the Virgin Mary (Sweet Dee).”

7. Dayman Wood Print: “Archival print mounted on an 8″ x 10″ stained Birch wood block.” Just missing the Ah-AHHHHH.

8. The Nightman Cometh Poster: “An 11×17 poster for THE NIGHTMAN COMETH, inspired by IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA and designed by Mark Welser.”

9. I’m Gonna Go Pop My Cateyes In Buttons: “A one inch pin with a standard pinback setup… black font on a golden yellow background.”

10. The Dennis System Print: While not the best designed of the bunch, every man should have the D.E.N.N.I.S. system close at hand, for reference.

Know of any I missed? Leave ‘em in the comments. I have shopping to do.

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.

With Ninjatown you have found success with an all ages title, a genre that seems to elude the bigger comics companies. Do you think it’s hard to find that balance of kid friendly entertainment that also appeals to an older audience?

Shawn: Yeah, it is definitely a balancing act. It’s cute and simple enough to appeal to kids, but not so simple and so cute to turn off adults. There’s also a level of inherent weirdness some of our characters have — or at least a level of absurdity — that I think a lot of adults can appreciate. We don’t necessarily want to be everything to everybody, but we are thankful that our characters seem to transcend the usual boundaries.

Piggybacking on the last question, what were the influences behind Ninjatown and Shawnimals in general?

Shawn: Anything and everything. Pop culture at large, for sure, but beyond that I love the idea of personifying things that would otherwise be common or even pointless. Objects, food, etc. Then there’s the character like Wee Ninja that obviously inspired by ninjas, or still other that are completely make believe.

Will Shawnimaland expand beyond the lands already discovered, or will you continue to populate the existing lands with new creations?

Shawn: Absolutely. Creating new characters, lands and stories is what we do. We love it. We’ll also continue populating our existing lands, too, because working creatively within parameters is as fun as it is challenging.

Working with Ninjatown as a digital comic, are you enjoying the new format and presentation?

Shawn: Absolutely. Apples devices (and really, smart phones in general) lend themselves incredibly well to reading. With regard to comics specifically, the displays handle the bright, saturated, detailed visuals so well.

Speaking of digital comics, have you been reading comics on the iPad or iPhone, or do you still pick up the physical copies? Also, do you have any favorite titles that you pick up regularly?

Shawn: Maybe it’s my background in publishing but there’s something really nice about picking up a physical copy of a comic or mag. Digital is a fantastic supplement, but shouldn’t be a replacement.

Finally, knowing your background in video games, what were some of your favorite games were from last year, and what games are you looking forward to this year?

Shawn: Rock Band 3. I’m a sucker for fake rocking. Outside of that, being limited to a Wii, I’ll go with Black Ops, GoldenEye and Epic Yarn. 2011 is going to be insane, though, and hopefully my wife will increase my allowance and I can finally get an Xbox and/or PS3. If not, I’ll stick to my other pastime: Drinking beer.

Thanks for the taking the time out to chat with us Shawn.

Shawn: My pleasure!