Wednesday, July 18, 2012

This Week's Geek Picks: Geeks Who Drink Pub Quiz, Super Nerd Night, Puppetry, Comic Book Lectures, and The Dark Knight Rises!


Sadly, there's no Nerd Nite in Lawrence this month (they'll be back in August), so we'll be filling our geeky needs elsewhere.  Luckily, there's no shortage of events.

We found ourselves last night in the unlikely venue of Phoggy Dog to experience the Geeks Who Drink pub quiz, a very interactive, multimedia quiz heavy on pop-culture.  Don't worry, readers: the bar at this early hour was not full of the fratty clientele you might expect (and fear) but rather a collection of well-behaved 20 and 30-something types hunkered over tables and reveling in their knowledge of cheesy movie villains, boy bands, and the living room sets of famous TV sitcoms (our group absolutely aced that last one, identifying all 8 of those sons-of-bitches, even Golden Girls and King of Queens!).

Some quiz highlights:

We refrained from using "boner" in our team name because we weren't sure if this was a randy crowd, but the first category of the night turned out to be "I've Got Wood" (sadly, the question was not about erections but rather about famous names containing "Wood").

The "Motown vs. O-Town" question was clever, asking contestants to identify alternating snippets of Motown and boy-band tunes.  We knew our Smokey Robinson, but we did NOT know our N'Sync.  And we were okay with doing poorly in this round and keeping our musical street cred intact.

We did not win the contest, but we DID win a free beer in one round by knowing something about broccoli.

A lowlight:

Somehow we failed to identify a clip from Johnny Dangerously during the video round (in our defense:  the clip was super-brief and we were drunk by that point).


Verdict: 

All in all, a worthy way to spend a blisteringly hot Tuesday evening in LFK.  It's free to play and the $2.50 any-beer-in-the-bar special will make sure you're at your sharpest when answering the questions!

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Our friends at Super Nerd Night sure as hell aren't taking the month of July off.  They're back at the Bottleneck tonight with a "METAL AS FUCK"  edition of the popular event.  Long Shadows is one of the bands rocking the music portion of the evening (and we understand that the Emberfield boffers will be boffing each other during their set).  The FB event page will fill you in on other nerdy details regarding parchment portraits, carousing maidens, and monster costumes.  All for a mere $3.  And check out this bad-ass flier:






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And what about puppetry?  It's geeky too.  Catch Quintron and Miss Pussycat at the Jackpot this evening along with all your favorite Replay Records artists:  Up the Academy, Dry Bonnet, Mouthbreathers.  Details here (and picture snagged from here ).




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If you're a comic book fan, the Lawrence Public Library kicks off a new About Lawrence series of events with "A Visual History of Comics" tomorrow (Thursday, July 19) at 6:30.   Get the full scoop here and check out some info from the press release:

"In Part I, writer Jai Nitz will walk us through the history of comics and how they have evolved while illustrator Greg Smallwood illustrates each character using a projector.

After a short intermission, Nitz and Smallwood will kick off Part II by talking us through the basics of sequential art and offering a sneak peek of their newest project to illustrate how it all works together.

Please note: this project contains “PG-13″ subject matter that may not be appropriate for kids! Part II isn’t recommended for anyone who’d prefer to steer clear of comic book crime and violence."




Chip: "I'd attend if it contained NC-17 subject matter. I LOVE watching cartoons fuck."

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And you don't need us to tell you this, but The Dark Knight Rises rises in theaters tomorrow at midnight! You've almost certainly got tickets in your nerdy little hands as we speak.  Will it be the masterpiece that geeks assume, or will it be full of near-indecipherable mumblings from beneath Bane and Batman's masks?

One of the biggest questions among fanboys during filming has been whether Anne Hathaway is worthy of the Catwoman suit (note from Christopher Nolan:  do not call her Catwoman, we don't use that name in my ultra-serious film!).  We'll admit that Hathaway gives us a moderate boner, but let's be honest here: she ain't no Julie Newmar!

See you at the IMAX!



 

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