For their one-year anniversary party, the nerds of Nerd Nite scheduled Nerd Nite 12 on 12/12/12 (so nerdy!) and perhaps the largest crowd so far assembled for three speeches from past alums. But first...the origin story.
Former co-boss Nick Ray, wearing "rose-tinted glasses," set the stage for Nerd Nite's anniversary celebration with a meditation on nostalgia (quickly dismissing "Proustian nostalgia" in favor of "historical nostalgia").
Presentation 1:
Steph Kozach kicked off the evening's talks with "Spit-Shining the Rust Belt: Transforming a Region from Smokestacks to Tech Startups," offering an optimistic take on the efforts of Rust Belt cities such as Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Detroit to emerge from the decline of the steel and automobile heyday and become hubs for everything from polymers to 3-D printing! Sure, the Cuyohaga River may have been once been so polluted it caught on fire, but now you can drink a "Burning River" beer from Great Lakes Brewing and remember the worst while looking ahead to the better! This presentation also introduced us to the term "ruin porn" (as in photos that capture the beauty of the decaying urban world). And this (nerdily) reminded us of a phrase in our favorite novel, DeLillo's White Noise, in which Jack reflects on a German attempt to design buildings in such a way that they will decay beautifully: "The ruin is built into the creation."
We recommend a "ruin porn" Google image search, which will lead you to shots like this from SmartPlanet
Presentation 2:
We are dumb when it comes to science (and, oddly enough, beer doesn't help), so we got lost admist the DNA, RNA, and TNA partway through Bryan Smith's "The origins of life: A quick biochemical history." Luckily, Bryan kept things remarkably light and funny for such a dense subject, complete with a "fungi / fun guy" joke, a reference to the theme song of Facts of Life, and a description of LJ-World talkbackers as lower life forms. This presentation also produced the best Q&A question of the evening: "So, could X-Men happen?" (Happily, the answer was yes!).
Presentation 3:
Justin Runge wrapped things up with "The Sound of Thunder Over Headphones: Ray Bradbury and the Radio." This was not a "teaching" presentation, Runge explained, but merely an attempt to share a passion, and in our view these are the very best kind of Nerd Nite presentations. Runge's talk worked mostly as a personal narrative of his boyhood fascination with radio drama, specifically Bradbury dramatizations, and much of the presentation allowed the audience to simply sit back and soak up some audio snippets. Ah, 100 nerds sitting in a dark room listening to sci-fi. Readers, this was nerdy as shit. And we liked it.
Bryan directed us all to this link to immerse ourselves into some sweet "old-time radio." You should probably do so.
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A few weekend picks.
Those who like their X-Mas festivities twangy and rootsy (we do) can hit the Granada on Friday for the KC Limits Christmas shindig with Reckless Kelly. Show starts at 9:00.
And those who STILL haven't had their fill of ugly-sweater parties can head back to the Granada for "Tacky Christmas" on Saturday. Midday Ramblers and Signal Ridge will be on hand for picking and grinning.
Frank's is hosting a circus in the basement on Saturday night. Yep. We predict at least three scenesters will get mauled by a fucking tiger.
And our drunken Santa-costumed pals in SantaCon Lawrence will hit the bars and the streets on Saturday for their annual (drunken) celebration of the holiday spirit. They kick off at the Sandbar with treks through Granada, Replay, Red Lyon, as well as a variety of optional evening routes, one of which includes Frank's, so presumably some of the Santas will be on hand for the circus. Visit the FB event page here,
And here they are posing at the Sandbar. How many Santas do you recognize?
What else should be included? Let us know.
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