The Ultimate Phoenix Geek has been crowned!

May 27, 2011 By 2 Comments
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Phoenix Ultimate Geek Smackdown contenders

(cc) MrAnathema on Flickr

Last night I had the most amusing honor of emceeing the first Phoenix Ultimate Geek Smackdown (PUGS) at Phoenix Comicon, put on by the Horror Track and the Midnite Movie Mamacita. This was an idea Andrea and I came up with over beers one afternoon. I need to stop drinking beer. Gets me into too much trouble.

Anyway, the idea was to see who had the best overall knowledge of geekery, on topics ranging from science-fiction to gaming. The gauntlet would be a series of tournament bracket debates where a Question of Great Import would be revealed, argued, and then finally judged by audience approval. The Questions of Great Import were given to the debaters on the spot, and they were assigned which side they would have to champion. A true geek would be able to argue both, would he not? About 200 people in the audience and our eight (somewhat reluctant) contenders waited breathlessly for each topic to be revealed.

The Questions of Great Import for the first round were:

  • Fast Zombies or Slow Zombies?
  • Autobots or Decepticons?
  • Team Edward or Team Jacob?
  • River Tam or Buffy Summers?

Winners are in bold. The Twilight one was thrown in for fun, and nearly started a small riot. The debaters rallied to a topic they clearly didn’t know well and argued whether women preferred pretty men who sparkled, or hairy men who grunted. The winners advanced to the semi-finals where the topics were:

  • Alliance or Horde?
  • Better Rogue Captain: Han Solo or Malcolm Reynolds?
Jeff Moriarty hosting PUGS

(cc) MrAnathema on Flickr

The Captain one was my favorite of the series, and with sporting Browncoats in the audience things got heated. The World of Warcraft topic brought out the hidden need of some men to dress as women in armored bikinis. By this point the audience was openly debating the topics among themselves and with the contestants.

Finally, only two contestants sat upon the battlefield and took aim at one of the all-time classics:

  • Marvel or DC?

BEDLAM! Fortunately, order was restored before security needed to be called, and Chris Calilung won the day, a big box of prizes, and the creepiest trophy ever - a lion, being ridden by Chewbacca and Geordi LaForge, with C3PO’s head in the lion’s mouth. This bizarre work of art was paraded around proudly, and documented in the cameras and cell phones of many stunned attendees.

Chris ran the field like a true Geek, and despite repeated threats about being so nervous he was going to hurl, when things got going he faced his fears like a Sicilian when death is on the line! Mad props go out to the runner-up, Ben Mandall, who came ready to rumble with his Dungeon Master’s screen and giant D20.

Chris Calilung - Phoenix's Ultimate Geek 2011

(cc) MrAnathema on Flickr

Huge thanks to Andrea for adding this into the Horror track, awesome Phoenix graphic designer Victor Moreno for making the presentation look so pretty, Phoenix geek blog Lightning Octopus for helping spread the word, relentless photographer Joe Abbruscato for the great pictures, and everyone else who contributed to make this goofy thing happen. It went so well, and people had so much fun, I’m hoping we make it part of the overall Phoenix Comicon event and get a bigger room. (HINT, HINT!)

Until then, I hope Chris enjoys his reign as Phoenix’s Ultimate Geek… and that the trophy doesn’t give him nightmares.

UPDATE: Due to popular demand, I present to you a picture of the Phoenix Ultimate Geek Smackdown Trophy!

PUGS Trophy

Phoenix Ultimate Geek Smackdown Trophy

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Phoenix Ultimate Geek Smackdown – Are you Fan enough?

May 24, 2011 By 3 Comments
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Phoenix Ultimate Geek SmackdownIn brightest day, in blackest night, in a galaxy far, far away, the Geeks gather to do battle, and the question on everyone’s mind is… who will survive, and what will be left of them?

Only one will walk away supreme in the Phoenix Ultimate Geek Smackdown!

Many will enter Phoenix Comicon thinking they could hold this title. They may know Boba Fett’s middle name, or the specific yarn used to knit Freddy Krueger’s sweater. They may know twelve different colors of Kryptonite, or be able to diagram Mario and Luigi’s family tree. But do they know all of the above without phoning, or tweeting, a friend?

That’s the challenge laid before the Phoenix Geekerati as contestants debate each other in topics drawn from the areas of Comics, Horror Movies, Science Fiction, Gaming, and the dark and foreboding… Wild Card. Each debate will feature a classic selection from one of these categories, like Who is a better Captain, Kirk or Picard? Winners will advance until they have proven their universal Geek wisdom against all challengers.

If you’re coming to Phoenix Comicon (and if you’re not, you lose your Geek cred right there), then it’s free to enter! Just visit http://phoenixcomicon.com/registration/pugs and cast your hat into the ring.

Either way, be sure to come check out the event as part of the Horror Track, at 8:00pm on Thursday, in room 129A, courtesy of the queen of local grindhouse, the Midnite Movie Mamacita. The crew at Lightning Octopus also plans to represent with some cephalopodic braggadocio.

Somewhere out there is the Ultimate Phoenix Geek. Is it you? As everyone knows…

…there can be only one!

 

 

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The Sadness of the Raptures

May 23, 2011 By 6 Comments
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(cc) janale on Flickr

Yes, someone predicted the Rapture was happening this past weekend, and in no great shock to most people, nothing happened.

I made fun of it several times, as did others, but sadly many people were sucked into this nonsense and spent all their money, spent their kid’s college funds, and even tried to euthanize their pets so they wouldn’t be “left behind”. This is the sad, dark part of Family Radio’s predictions. People and families are ruined because they followed this nonsense.

To me, the most horrible thing isn’t this particular Rapture-Gone-Wrong, but the underlying views behind it.

First, that individual people believe they are so incredibly important that the end of all things is going to happen during their lifetime. People have been predicting the end of all things (eschatology) since we first learned to write, and probably before. In Christianity alone, the first predictions of the Second Coming came around 30 CE, which is almost right after Jesus was crucified. They couldn’t believe the Messiah would wait a decade to return let along 2,000+ years. Every time someone predicts the Apocalypse and it doesn’t happen, others point and laugh. Yet there are millions of people out there who are still convinced the end times are coming any day now. Get over yourselves.

The second, and larger problem for me is that so many people worry about the end of things at all. They find the world so horrible and stark that the solace of The End is greater than all the amazing things around them. So scary is their reality that it isn’t enough that they no longer live, but that all of creation ends with them. This little universe of ours is a great, mysterious, and fascinating thing. Appreciate what you already have, because it is glorious.

I understand both of these aspects of human psychology from an intellectual sense, but they still depress me. How much better would the world be if we paid more attention to how we live rather than how we all might die? How much richer would we be if we worried less about aggrandizing this particular tick of the clock, and simply worked hard to make our own contributions matter?

Do what you can with the time you have, and make the world a better place. Otherwise I fear that if there really is to be an End to humanity, it is not going to come at the hand of a Divine Being but at our own.

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