Sinister Jack's

Sinister Jack's
It's that time of year here in my Blog of Geekdom.
Showing posts with label Felicia Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Felicia Day. Show all posts

Monday, May 28, 2012

The Geekification of YouTube

It was bound to happen.  Digital media has become a constant in geek and genre entertainment.  Look at any social social interaction on the web, like Facebook and Google+, and you'll find a abundance of fantasy, horror, sci-fi groups and clubs that offer all sorts of material to allow ourselves to fall into the wonders of Geek Culture.

The "post it yourself" social media web page, YouTube is no different.  Since it's inception, fan boys and girls have been flooding the page with oodles of content.  From Fan-films to video blogging to documentary shorts on comic conventions, you can find yourself lost for day's going through an endless treasure trove of cool as heck content.

YouTube has yet to be completely corporatized or censored by doo-gooding parental groups of purificationists.  YouTube realizes that geeks are made up of mostly mature adults where our minds won't melt if there's a bit of mature language used.  So now is the time to jump in and have a looksie if you haven't yet.

Let me help you get started.  I've picked out of few of my favorite YouTube content providers (or YouTube Channels as they're referred to).  Now, before you start viewing, there's something you need to keep in mind.  As I just mentioned, these channels are geared for adults, so if you have little ears and eyes close by......... for crissakes, put them back in the shoebox in the crawlspace!!!  But, seriously folks.  These channels are for adults.

That being said, here we go.  I'll give you a link to the channel, a review of it and then a little sampler plate of a couple of video's they provide.


The Nerdist Channel

Founded by stand up comedian / actor, Chris Hardwick, the Nerdist YouTube channel is the perfect compliment to his already established network of Podcasts, which I blogged about quite a while ago.  One of the great things about anything Nerdist related is that it doesn't restrict itself to just the genres of nerdom.  Sure there's a good dose of a love for Sci-Fi and Fantasy, but it also aims itself at pop culture in general.  Some of my favorite shows are posted below.


How much cooler is bowling with the cast and creator of The Walking Dead?  Not very frackin' much!



If you love the fan based, movie review website, Ain't-It-Cool-News, here's it's founder's own web show.  God this kid loves movies.


Here's a wonderful round table discussion of all things geeky with a special guest star every week. 

There's also shows with Weird Al Yankovic and one that specializes in Cos-Play at conventions.  Apparently they are also planning a Fangoria show with Anthrax's Scott Ian  Definitely a channel to keep you eyes on.


Next up is a channel that I tripped upon when I was looking for reviews on the video game, Red Dead Redemption.


This import from Canada features three fans of video games and movies who review them on an ongoing basis.  I enjoy their humor and camaraderie and their creativity to put something like this together.


My introduction to 3KB.


Their review of the best movie this summer so far.


Here's one where they have the main voice actor from the video game actually play the game with them.  Cool concept.



Geek icon, Felicia Day, has been a pioneer in online geek content with her on-line show The Guild for some time now.  At YouTube she has her own channel where many a wondrous, geekesque related show can be viewed.


A show where they feature guest stars playing famous, geeky table top games hosted by Wil Wheaton? YES, PLEASE!  This episode features one of the greatest TV scriptwriters of our time!  Jane Espenson.


Miss Day's own personal video blog.  Is it kinda lame for me to post the episode where she poses in cute Steampunk outfits?  Methinks not!



A YouTube, online Fantasy book club where there are book reviews and interviews with the authors themselves.  If I were more of a literary genre geek, I'd be all over it like a bad rash.


I may let you know of a few more in another post coming up.  Right now I have to partake in a Memorial Day cookout.  So until next time, stay vertical!

Zangz.

Thursday, July 01, 2010

"Indiana Jones and the Staff of Codex".... it could happen.


Though last night's chill off of the lake was slightly on the cold side for my short sleeve shirt attire, the blood red 3/4 moon that slowly rose above the dark Lake Michigan made the goosebumps on my shoulders well worth it.

A haunting and beautiful site it was. And it was made all the better with a nice cigar. Thankfully it wasn't a full blood red moon, since I would have had to dodge werewolves. Even so, I guess I wouldn't have to worry too about much since these days werewolves are far more concerned with their 6-pack pecks rather than chomping down a lonely geek out enjoying a nighttime cigar. Yep. That movie came out this week. Sigh. Yawn.

As I sat there enjoying the maduro I was thinking odd and strange things to myself. Here is how my strange little brain works and how my imagination goes on like a runaway train.

I was thinking on how I am a big fan of the Indiana Jones movies (yes, even the last one). I was also thinking about how I'm a big fan of the online series, The Guild. I then went on to think about how cool it would be if the two could do some sort of cross over type movie.

I sat with stoggie in mouth for a while contemplating how that could possibly be done. Then it came to me. Indiana Jones is an archaeologist who specializes in recovering mythical items of ancient history. So lets put him on a quest for something that has great power and is believed to be of ancient legend. How about The Staff of Codex.

If you're not familiar with The Guild you can brush up on it HERE. The guild is about the real world alter egos of fantasy avatars that dwell within the online gaming world of World of Warcraft. Felicia Day, creator and writer of the series, plays the lead character of Cyd Sherman, an awkward, yet sweet girl addicted to the ever so popular online computer game World of Warcraft (WoW). Her online character is a female priest warrior named Codex. WoW takes place in an ancient, mythical, fantasy setting much like Dungeons & Dragons or Conan the Barbarian.

Codex's main weapon, and presumably tool of healing, is her staff. Something of such power could possibly be a great gift of healing to the world's wounds. Or it could be a nasty weapon that could give evil men great power.

Now let's say that this fantastical ancient world actually existed hundreds of thousands of years ago. The Staff of Codex has been somewhat forgotten and only exists in mythical tale, like a silly bedtime story that is told to children to help them receive comfort before sleep.

Let's start the film with Indy in some tomb or ancient temple looking for something completely different. It's the very beginning of the movie and he's on a quest to find some ancient king's crown deep in a tomb in the bowels of a long forgotten, dilapidated castle. While in search of this item he somehow accidentally stumbles upon the crypt of one of the King's lowly scribes. He then finds one of the scribe's transcripts, a huge ornate book filled with stories that the scribe translated as they were told to him by an ancient warrior known as Vork.

While down in the crypt Indy runs into the "bad guys" who are looking for The Book of Vork for whatever nefarious, power hungry reason. A chase sequence take place where Indy grabs the ancient tome, figuring since he didn't gain the actual artifact he was looking for, at least he has something to give the museum and eludes the "bad guys".

He takes it back to whoever is now the main curator of whatever museum or university he is working for. Though, they are, at first, disappointed that Indy didn't get them their main prize, their eyes light up once they realize what the Book of Vork reveals. The directions to the tomb of the warrior priestess, Codex! Of course it won't be revealed in an obvious way. It will be some sort of code or secret treasure map revealed within the manuscript Perhaps Indy's university / museum cohort is a bit well versed in the WoW / Guild mythology and want Indy to continue on the quest for the uber-powerful Staff of Codex!

Indy will be reluctant at first, believing that the staff is something of just legend and fairy tale. But, for some alternative reason I haven't come up with yet, Indy will give in and start in on the worldwide quest. But, throughout the the film his doubt in the Codex mythology will fade and for whatever emotional or story driven reason he will have full on resolve to find the staff before the baddies do.

We'll have Indy visit at least 3 different regions of the world on his quest. Probably a lot of Europe. Still working that all out. And of course once he reaches The Tomb of Codex, he will find it a huge, ornate temple like structure with plenty of booby traps to barely evade. The tomb will be decorated with many statues of the other Guild members and the staff, itself will be in the arms of a statue of Codex which stands atop of her crypt.

Now, who should be the "bad guys"? The films have either the militaristic Nazis or Commies being the bad asses. Though, I wouldn't want Indy placed in modern times, I may still want the message to be relevant to today's issues. So lets make the bad guys members of the progressively greedy health care companies. They want to obtain the healing powers of the Staff of Codex so they can gain the cures to many diseases and put a price tag on them so that they can hold the world at ransom.

"We have the cure to cancer, but you'd better be ready to pay through the teeth for it. Bruahahahhahaha!"

The main villain would be some sort of greedy 1930's to 1950's pharmaceutical company owner and his henchmen could be some sort of mercenaries led by one stand out sadistic bastage who wold also act the the main bad guy's top lackey. Still working that out as well. It's a little too Avatar right now. I need villains who are quite more 1930's - 1950's pulp influenced.

I'm not sure I want the whole Indy adventure to end as it usually does. The bad guys getting their comeuppance once they obtain the Staff of Codex and it totally back fires on them. Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt. I'd like to see some sort of James Bond villain type of demise to dispatch the bad guys. Indy needs to grow some balls and take them out in some nasty ways. Dropping them in vats of acid. Pushing them off of cliffs for them to fall to their deaths. That sort of thing.

I know Indy is intended to be family friendly and the villains of these movies are usually dispatched due to their own want and greed. But, sometimes some good old fashioned revenge does the trick.

To be honest, my silly, little, twisted mind is still trying to work this all out. But, if the wonderful minds of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Felicia Day or Frank Darabont (Yep, they should have listened to him in the first time when he penned the script for the 4th Indy movie), come across this post, I'm game to whatever they come up with. Restraining orders pending.

Remember, you read it on Zangz's Blog of Geekdom first. All rights reserved.

I'm hoping the cigar I was smoking was made up of cigar tobacco and not something more, shall we say, recreational.

That's all I got on that craziness. On to some other stuff.



I'm hoping to have a full plate for the 4th of July weekend. I'm off of work tomorrow and will hit Summerfest to see The Scorpions tomorrow night. Then, either on the 3rd or 4th, I'll be attending a cookout / fire pit/ firework craziness party (the actual date has yet to be determined... let's get on that, Roberto / Iris?). Then maybe another cookout will commence. Fireworks. Explosions. Beer. Cigars. All is good.


Still playing through Red Dead Redemption and I find it one of the finest games of the year so far. Yet there are some control issues I have with the game. I'll let you all know about it when I finish it in a review here.


Happy birthday, America. Let's blow some dren up!

Stay vertical, everybody!

Happy and safe 4th, kids.

Zangz.