My Life As A Geek: Misadventures in Pop Culture

Leonard James Akaar, Small Universe Syndrome & Boba Fetting

2011-04-19T17:13:00.000-07:00

I've recently begun reading through the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel relaunch series. These are novels set just after the end of the series and continuing the adventures of the characters beyond the episodes. They're quite interesting so far but I've noticed a pervasive problem with them that's even worse in the other Star Trek franchise novels.

I like to call this problem "Small Universe Syndrome." It's a unique quirk of media tie-in fiction set in vast (and old!) franchises with writers who tend to be fans. To some extent it does exist in franchise fantasy novels as well, but it's less immediately noticeable in many of them. Small Universe Syndrome, at its heart, is the idea that instead of populating a book's background with random, basically characterless, supernumeraries, writers will bring in a guest star/secondary character who fits the bill. The advantage is that it often cuts down the amount of character building a writer has to do for a scene where a main character needs information from a superior or such. Instead of inventing a new character and introducing a relationship between that character and the prime one you're using, which can often take up time that a writer either doesn't have or doesn't want to waste, it's simpler to just plug in an existing personage. And at this conceptual level, I have no problem with it. It's a nice little nod to the readers. However, this practice has been getting out of hand of late in various fictional universes.

While there are many instances I can examine, perhaps the best one - and the most damning! - is the case of one Leonard James Akaar in the Star Trek universe. Akaar is a character from the 60s episode "Friday's Child." He appears in roughly one scene... as a baby. You see, Kirk and McCoy help protect his due-any-second mother - Julie Newmar - from Klingons, and to pay homage for their protection, she names the just delivered child after the two of them. It's a fun episode and features McCoy's famous "I'm a doctor, not an escalator." Now you would think this would be the end of the story, no? An alien species never revisited by any of the shows would seem to be the end of the story. Well, not quite. In the 1980s DC Comics Star Trek comic, an adult Leonard James Akaar showed up as a witness at Captain Kirk's trial. It was a pretty cool scene, referencing an episode of the show while "updating" a character. And that was pretty much all she wrote for Mr. Akaar. Until 1999/2000 that is.

According to Memory Beta, the Star Trek wiki for Licensed tie-in material, Akaar has appeared in 17 novels since the DS9 Relaunch in 2000. (It more or less discounts books where he makes minor appearances - page or less - and discounts any mentions-but-doesn't-appears) That's an average of 1.7 novels a year. For a character whose sole "canonical" appearance was as a non-speaking child, that's a significant uptick in appearances! In books set during and after the "modern" Trek series, Akaar is an elder statesman/ambassador/diplomat/adviser/former commander/former head of Starfleet. What a resume! He's basically a catch all for those situations where an author wants a familiar face to put Picard or Sisko in their place. But what's wrong with that resume is people forgetting what he's supposed to have done! In DS9 he's an ambassador, former admiral and former captain. In Next Generation books, he's a life-long diplomat based on his leadership roles on his home planet. Books within the last few years have reconciled these two paths with him being a Diplomatic Officer! HUZZAH!

Now, Akaar has also made appearances in what are called "Lost Era" novels - those novels set after the Original Series movies, but before the start of The Next Generation. Here, he's an officer (Sometimes Tactical, sometimes Diplomatic!) aboard the Excelsior, which is another Small Universe microcosm. (Sulu, Chekov, Tuvok, Chapel, Rand, Akaar, and more!). Akaar is the most interesting because of his little screen time! To give an opposite example, there's a Bolian Captain, Rixx, who appears in an early episode of TNG. He has quite a number of speaking lines, mentions a past meeting with Picard, and never appears again, outside a few offhand mentions. Rixx had never made an "expanded universe" appearance until 2 years ago!

However, Akaar is not alone. I just read "The Lives of Dax" which tells the tale of all 8 hosts to the Dax symbiont. In general the stories tend to be pretty good. However, it's just simmering in SUS! T'Pau, Dr. McCoy (granted his presence in the story was established in the series), and Captain Pike make token appearances that don't add anything other than name recognition to the stories. One of Dax's hosts invents transporters for the Federation, another tests shuttles for the launch of the Excelsior (See above!). After a while, it became a little eye roll-y. There's apparently a book out this past month which sees Geordi, Guinan, Scotty, Nog, Nurse Ogowa, Leah Brahams and more all on the same ship!

I've chosen Trek as a starting point because it best exemplifies the problem. However Star Wars, Doctor Who, Forgotten Realms and many more all have their fair share of small universe syndrome. But Star Wars has also resulted in a similar, but slightly different phenomenon I like to call Boba Fett-ing. As many know, Boba Fett is one of the most popular characters in the franchise, but his fame is disproportionate to his screen time! Essentially, he became popular because he looked really cool and uttered a few badass lines.

Boba Fetts are a unique version of SUS characters. Essentially, they're somewhat established characters in the show/movies whose fame, popularity or presence in tie-in literature is disproportionate to their screen time/role on the show. Star Trek has a few, Ro Laren is the one I usually point out the most though. Here's a character that was supposed to move to Deep Space Nine, but the actress wanted out of the show. So the books went on to make her a big presence in the DS9 relaunch, as well as in the Next Gen books set during her time on that show. She's been said to be responsible for big resistance skirmishes and decisive wins in battles. Scotty - though a fairly big character in his own right in the TOS era - has become a Boba Bett for the TNG books. (Scotty was transported to the future - literally - in a 5th season TNG episode and has become the HEAD of the Corps of Engineers in the books.)

Star Wars has a few OTHER Fetts as well, like Corran Horn - who I love. He tends to pop up in every book to say a few tough guy lines and then go off on his own mission. Ki-Adi-Mundi is the big prequel movie-era Boba Fett, he only has a few onscreen lines, but in the comic books and novels he's a bad ass Jedi Knight. After a fashion, Qui-Gon Jinn - Liam Nesson - has a Boba Fett tinge to him. Many major events or turning points were attributed to him because fans loved his one-hit-wonder character. A whole bevy of Pre-Prequels detail his life training young Obi-Wan and political dealings with that guy Terrence Stamp played.

Artemis Entreri from the Drizzt Do'urdern novels is a bad guy who just shows up to taunt people and then disappear from time to time. He was appeared up with equally Boba Fett-esque character Jaraxle - basically Drizzt's foil from eariler in his timeline!

Boba Fetts are common in most sci-fi and fantasy books. They need not be good guys or bad gals, but it's a correlation between fan interest or literature popularity that just doesn't mesh with the source text/movie. Boba Fetts are often linked to Small Universe Syndrome, where their presence becomes almost expected. I've heard fans say it's easier to name the Star Wars books Boba Fett is not in then to try and list them all. (But I'm sure Wookiepedia has one.)

So what do you folks think of Small Universe Syndrome? Is it inevitable with fan-purchased literature? Does it have to happen? Do you like it? Are there Boba Fetts you can think of in other franchises? Do you disagree with the concept? Let me know!

Social Media Impact Survey

2011-01-02T18:55:00.000-08:00

or, "Narcissism in Academic Form"

Hey guys, today I'm asking you, my humble audience, to take part in a small experiment. I realized in the past through the avenues of Facebook, Twitter and my various attempts at blogging, that I've shared a lot of inania about myself. So I devised an unscientific survey to sort of test my friends and acquaintances about ME! It's totally self-serving but I'm curious to see what information comes across these social media. Do people retain the random bursts of info we share? Are somethings more associated with me than others?

This quiz is based around my interests in geek film, comics and TV shows. It's all generally test "What's Brian's favorite X, Y or Z" but this is a first foray into doing more substantive research into the subject. So please, indulge me and take my quiz! You'll be supporting science! http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KMWNRXQ

Pellet Comic Reviews for December 15

2010-12-16T13:38:00.000-08:00

or, "May All Your Christmases be Green (Lanterns)"

Amazing Spider-Man #650 - This was an issue I both loved (Black Cat, Milk Bath, New Hobgoblin) and hated (New Suit hijinx, MJ, Pete's New Job, the back up.) Essentially, what works for this book works extremely well and what doesn't doesn't. Slott choosing to focus on Peter helping Felicia become a hero is a great angle, and he nails the chemistry between the two. On the other hand, the chemistry between Peter and "New Girlfriend" is fairly dull. The fact that MJ appears for 5 panels and Peter can react off of her speaks to something behind the scenes. The reason I label MJ a negative of this issue is that the scene and circumstances she's in are so absolutely contrived. As well, I continue to loathe the terrible plot convenient job Pete has. It's good on paper, but it sticks out as a sore thumb to me how it just fits so easily into stories. "Oh it's okay, I can work whatever hours I want..." There is a good bit of "physical" comedy that comes out of his changing costume at work though. This issue was a solid 4/3.5 until I read the gods awful back up to this issue. It features the worst rendering of Mach V I've ever seen and has a pointless double reveal in less than one page! And the reveal isn't noticeable the first time it happens, because the character is off-model. Alas, I'm still on board "Big Time" but the seams are showing it seems. 3/5

Batman and Robin #18 - Definitely a step up from last issue both in story and art. It seems Cornell and McDaniel had a lot more time to work on this one. On the art front, things are clearer and Dick and Damian are the proper heights. Absence is an interesting character, and I like the idea that Hush created this villain while posing as Bruce. It's good, but it's not great. 3/5

Brightest Day #16 - We're finally getting to the meat of this series with the focus shifting to Aquaman and Aqualad in the lead story and Firestorm in the B-story of the issue. The art continues to be a strong point of this series, the transitions seeming far more polished than previous issues. Getting to know Aqualad's backstory is interesting, especially with the contrasts against Aquamn's history. I wish we could get a little more out of the Firestorm story, it does seem a little stalled, but it's not too bad, like some of the other stories in this book. I'm really liking Aqualad so far. His costume reveal this issue is pretty badass. 4/5

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #5 - This book is hitting its stride. It still feels like it should be a little farther along then it is. A more action oriented issue, we take a break from the focus on Sodam Yat and follow Guy's story. Tomasi is nailing the characterizations for Guy, Arisa and Kilowog. He certainly gets these characters and it's nice to see him using them in his own sandbox, though references are made to the greater Green Lantern mythos Tomasi helped Johns create. 4/5

Green Lantern/Plastic Man: Weapons of Mass Deception - I wasn't actually aware this was coming out until the other day and I picked this up on a lark. It was fairly fun in a Silver/Bronze Age-y way. The art was a little sketchy, but well suited to the tale. There's certainly a very Joe Staton look to Hal going on here. 3.5/5

Supergirl #59 - This issue makes the end of the Sterling Gates/Jamal Igle run on Supergirl which began with #34. In that time, this team has turned in the best ongoing Superman family title I've read in a long time, as well as the first time I've cared about Kara Zor-El in a long time. This was a nice end cap to the series, bringing things full circle. The nice thing though, is that there's a sense of future to the end of this run, which sometimes doesn't happen. You'll have writers place their characters in a place they can't really come back from. What we get here is a hopeful message of Cat Grant accepting Supergirl for who she is as well as Kara accepting her place in the world. Great stuff. I'll miss this book and team. 4/5

Thunderbolts #151 - A great, slow issue that explores the backstory of Ghost, one of my favorite villains in the Marvel U. The framing story also offers some great characterizations for the Thunderbolts team, as well as the reveal of the new teammate. Kev Walker's art continues to amaze and there is some wonderful panneling on the pages here. All around a great package and a book I love to read each month. 5/5

Uncanny X-Force #3 - A book that I wasn't planning on picking up has turned out to be a fairly good read so far. This issue featured a fight between X-Force and the Final Horsemen. The Horsemen are a really interesting set of villains with interesting powers and histories. The dynamics that play off of Wolverine and Warren being involved directly in the fight are also well used. It's a book that uses both Fantomex and Deadpool and uses them expertly and without annoyance. A really solid book that leaves me curious to see where it goes each month. 4/5

X-Factor #212 - In recent months, I've been pretty down on this title, and parts of this story arc in particular. This issue, though, was quite enjoyable. Peter David is a master at using his characters against each other and off each other and that's really the treat of the issue. To be fair, the fight scenes are really nice, but guest star Thor just sort of disappears as a speaking character halfway through the issue and really serves no discernible story purpose. Still really good reading, especially the slow build up on the Rahne story arc. 4/5

And my pick of the week....

Green Lantern #60 - Since the end of Blackest Night, the main GL book has been a little "here-and-there" last issue, we finally got some focus back into the title. This issue capitalizes on that focus and brings us into the next step of the GL story Geoff Johns has been spinning these nearly 6 years. Para-Flash was a nice reveal last issue and the fight that ensues this issue is a great bit of character work between Barry and Hal, it has implications for both books as well. Fantastic stuff here. However, there is a reveal at the end of the issue that I've been talking about since the beginning of Blackest Night. He's a villain with a long history in GL and working with the color spectrum. I'm excited it finally came to light. This issue also sees Keith Champagne come onboard to handling inking chores. Champagne has a history of working with Geoff Johns. Champagne is a solid inker whose style stands out, but also shows off the original pencils. I hope he sticks around as he think his style fits well with Mahnke. 5/5

I don't normally pick up variant covers, but this DC 75th Anniversary Frank Quitely homage cover was too nice to pass up at the LCS!

Pellet Comic Reviews for December 8

2010-12-10T20:01:00.000-08:00

or, "Adventures in Squirrelsitting"

Batgirl #16 - I absolutely love Stephanie Brown. I always liked her as Spoiler, but I adore her Batgirl. Bryan Q. Miller is doing some fantastic writing, giving Stephanie a unique, maturing voice as she comes into her own as bot an adult and a superhero. This issue sees Steph's secret life and college life colliding together and it's fantastically engaging - especially her relationship with "Detective McCute Schtick." Dustin Nguyen continues to impress with his pencils, fantastic flow in panels and some fun playing with page design. Recommended reading. 4/5

DC Universe Holiday Special 2010 - A rather interesting collection of 6 holiday stories from around the DCU. The stand outs were the Jonah Hex Chanukkah story and Spectre story which focused on the Persian/Iranian holiday of Nououz. I was surprised by the multicultural bent of the issue and the focus away from Christmas. In all a very good anthology of stories. The only one I didn't like was the Anthro story, just wasn't engaged by it. 3/5

The Flash #7 - I was a big fan of Geoff Johns' previous "Rogue Profile" issues during his previous Flash run, and this first during his new run continues the tradition. This story serves as a really nice reintroduction to Digger Harkness that also serves to move the story forward. The Rogues have been my favorite group of villains in comics. They always seemed to have legitimate rationales for attacking their heroes, as opposed to "I want things!" Digger first challenges the Flash because he thinks he can sell more boomerangs if he beats the flash. Scott Kolins amazes on art, even with his new style. It's always nice seeing him back on the Flash. 5/5

Justice League: Generation Lost #15 - And the best Justice League book in probably the past 10 years continues to be awesome. Judd Winick has a great grasp on the personalities of all the JLI characters he's using and can pay them well off each other. There's a fantastically written scene between Booster Gold and Captain Atom where you can see Atom actually reaizing Booster as a real leader. Wonderful. The issue has two different artists but their styles are divided well over the issue. A fantastic book that is a joy to read every other week! 5/5

Knight & Squire #3 - Paul Cornell's fantastic take on Knight and Squire continues in all it's Brit-ophilia glory. This issue is a history and Shakespeare buff's dream as King Richard III is brought back from the grave. He uses his wile to bring other unfavored monarchs back from the grave to overthrow the Queen! Only the Knight can save the realm. A great issue chock full of references to England and literature. Jimmy Broxton is also jamming his panels with visual references (Revenge of the Cidermen!) and gags as well as story points. Great balancing act. 4/5

Mystery Society #5 - I've loved this book since the first issue, it's a fantastic mix of great, saucy writing from Steve Niles and amazing art from Ashley Wood and Fiona Staples. It's hard to talk about this book, it's pure fun in comic form with zany ideas, smooth talking leads and a steampunk Jule Verne Robot! I mean come on? Apparently this issue is the last of the series, which makes me sad as I'll miss this monthly douse of awesome. If you haven't checked it out, it seems the trade is being rushed to print within the next two weeks. 4/5

Nortlanders #35 - This book has been my Vertigo mainstay over the past few years, along with Sweet Tooth it's the only monthly Vertigo book I buy in issues. (Fables being my tradewaiting series) I simply love the tone of the book and the focus on pagans. It's a great look and each arc introduces some new aspect and era to the book. This issue features some particularly moody art from Becky Cloonan. I'll say, her style really fits with the tone of this story, but also through coloring matches the series as it has been for three years. I would have liked a bit more story from this first half, but this book is always a consistent read. 4/5

Red Robin #18 - I think this is my third attempt at this book and this one seems the most likely to keep me interested. Fabian Nicieza is my favorite "B" writer. He might not be the strongest writer, but he writes consistently decent books. I didn't absolutely love this issue, despite being the first part of a story arc I felt like I was missing a little information. I do worry Tim is too Bruce-like for my tastes. 3/5

Superboy #2 - This book was so close to being my Pick. A fantastic cover, a really great story, and solid interior art from Pier Gallo. Lemire's Superboy is exactly in my conception of the character. Part small town boy, part trying to fill his "Fathers' " shoes, part charmer. The idea that Poison Ivy would be hitting on him made me laugh. Just really fun, light fare that's written so well. Loved this book. 5/5

Thor: The Mighty Avenger #7 - Me? Reading a Romance book? Starring Thor? This is a lovely book that is so much fun to read and soak in the art. I'll be sad to see this book canceled with the next issue, but it promises to go out on a high note. Please be sure to check out the trade of the first 4 issues, you'll be doing yourself a huge favor. 4/5

And my Pick of the Week for this week is...

New Avengers #7 - Brian Michael Bendis is a writer I both love and hate. He walks a line with me that can fall too much into writing scenes where everyone sounds exactly the same spouting lines that he finds funny. This issue happened to fall into this trap, but excelled at it by playing it all for comedy. Essentially, nothing happens other than adding Doctor Strange to the team, but we get some fantastic characterizations along the way. I absolutely love any scenes with Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. Fantastic interplay there, one of the best couples in comics. Stuart Immonen was on fire this issue, doing facial expressions and the 26 panel interview page which resulted in one of the best moments of the issue. As well, I was unaware SG and Wolverine had a history. Another fantastic scene. There's not too much I can say other that this is, in my mind, the strongest Avengers book going (that isn't Thunderbolts!) and I'm glad to be back on board the New Avengers team! 5/5

Pellet Comic Reviews for December 2

2010-12-09T19:19:00.001-08:00

or, "The Uncanny Luthor of Oz"

So this week, I hope to start reviewing my comics on this blog instead of clogging my twitter feed with 140 character reviews of the books I read each week. I intend to have short reviews to give you a sense of what I feel about my weekly haul of books.

I'm playing catch up right now, I'm a week behind. I should be able to swing the rest of my stack tomorrow or saturday. This was an odd week. A small-ish haul, made up mostly of limited series or things I'm thinking of dropping. Without further ado... COMICS

Action Comics Annual (2010) #13 - Paul Cornell's reinvention/redefinition of Lex Luthor continues in this solid annual. We're given Luthor's first encounters with two of DC's other iconic villains: Darkseid and Ra's Al Ghul. The Darkseid story is a solid effort, Darkseid having some fantastic lines, and has some fantastic layout work from Marco Rudy. That said, Rudy's line art was a little shaky, some characters were hard to follow through the story. Some of that was also the fault of the colorist, at times its hard to discern the difference between Perry White and the head of Intergang. The Ra's story is told in the style of a legend/fairytale and its coupled with some of the most mature Ed Benes art I've seen. It's nice take on the relationship between the two, while having a very nice style. Both stories are great editions to Cornell's overall Luthor mythos. 4/5

Adventure Comics #521 - This isn't a book I generally pick up, but I thought the premise of rebuilding the Green Lantern Corps. in the future of the Legion of Super-Heroes might be fun. While I didn't enjoy the issue - it seemed focused on character work I wasn't look for base don the cover - I thought it was decent and the reveal at the end could be interesting. I just wasn't sold on this series. 2/5

Astonishing Thor #1 - This was another book I picked up on a lark. I wasn't particularly drawn to it, but I had heard a few good things scattered across the Internet. Mike Choi's art is pretty solid across the issue, though some faces look odd at times. The story is fairly weak, with some clunky dialogue. I admit, the last time I read a Rob Rodi script was 10 years ago in Codename: Knockout, but I remembered liking it. Nothing here was working for me, sadly. 2/5

Brightest Day #15 - Now that we're past the midway point of this series, I had expected to see some threads coming together. Instead, we're treated to a 20-page long alternate timeline in the Martian Manhunter's mind. It's not a bad one, and there are some insightful characterizations but the issue just felt flat and like so much padding to get the story to 26 issues. Clark and Gleason worked really well together here, so it's not all bad! 3/5

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 #39 - I really just don't know what to say about this book at this point. It felt like a jumble of gobbeldy-guck to get to the end of the story. The book just doesn't have the luster it did 2 years ago when it all started. Count me out for Buffy Season 9. 1/5

Freedom Fighters #4 - This is a writing team I've loved, and whose previous work with these characters was fantastic. But this latest effort just lacks the energy of previous installments. I can't even place why I'm not liking this issue. I just don't feel anything for this book. Sadly, I'll be departing the book with this issue. I still love this issue's fantastic minimalist cover. 2/5

Generation Hope #2 - I was a little leery after last issue, but liked it well enough to continue. This issue really doesn't move us too forward in terms of plot, however there are some great moments of characterization for the "Lights." That said, I found this issue to be a little wanting. It was certainly better than run of the mill, but a step down from the first issue. As a sidenote, I picked up the wonderful Women of Marvel variant cover for this issue, featuring Hope Summers. 3.5/5

Sweet Tooth #16 - Sweet Tooth is a book that I have loved since issue 1. It's also one of those books that it becomes tiring to talk about because it's so good. I had been a little down on the book of late, not because it was getting bad but because I just felt a little distant. Lemire is doing fantastic things with this book. There were some great layouts and art choices this issue. As well, I got a sense of forward momentum from the plot which really energized the book for me. A great read. 4/5

Vertigo Resurrected: Winter's Edge - The second in a collection of Vertigo shorts and lost stories. I was really intrigued by the first special which presented a mixed collection of stories vaguely premised on being gun/war based stories. This special recollects the three Winter's Edge one-shots released in the late 90s. They present stories featuring Vertigo mainstays with a winter theme. Most of them, for obvious reasons, deal with death (and Death) and present some great morality tales therein. However, there are two stories that deal with Desire that sparks the idea that the Solstice was the celebration of the Unconquerable Sun, when spring and life come back to the world. A fantastic read, though I would say I found a few more misses that hits in this collection as opposed to the first. It still presents some of the best material around and is worth picking up. 5/5

And my Pick of the Week for December 2, 2010:

Ozma of Oz #2 - I've loved the previous Oz collaborations between Eric Shanower and Skottie Young. Shanower does a great job of working Baum's stories into a comic format, but Young's pencils shine as you can see in his design for the Wheelers to the right. I've loved Ozma of Oz ever since I saw Disney's Return to Oz which combines some minor plot points from Marvelous Land of Oz with the overall story of Ozma. This issue brings us fully into the story I'm used to. Dorthory has woken up on the distant shore of a fairy land. With her talking hen, Billina, she begins to investigate the area whilst avoiding the Wheelers and she stumbles upon Tik-Tok the Clockwork Man. Tik-Tok is my favorite Oz character and Young's redesign of him is fantastic! He has a copper mustache and he has three seperate keyholes to wind his thinking, speaking and "action" independent of each other! The comic takes us through his origin and we start to move deeper into the land of Ev. Fantastic things are being done in this book and I'm glad to be supporting it. I love handing these things off to my nieces and nephews. 5/5

A Punk Rock Christmas 2010

2010-11-28T18:35:00.000-08:00

or, "How An Inaccurate Label Became a Holiday Tradition"

My family was never huge on tradition. This is not to say we don't have a few scattered over the years, or perhaps informal ones, but never any codified activities and events that mark off the year like many others do. In fact, I'd say that's more our tradition than anything else. That said, I did sort of develop a personal tradition a few years ago that I stick to every year. I create and maintain a playlist of alternative Christmas and Holiday songs to play. It's my non-believer way to celebrate the holiday season and get in the spirit of the month.

The genesis of the Punk Rock Christmas Playlist is hard to pin down. I'd had a few odds and ends from various albums floating around iTunes for a years, but in 2005 I stuck them all together into a playlist to have handy. In searching out other tunes on - LimeWire of all things - I stumbled across a track called "Punk Rock Christmas" inaccurately attributed to The Sex Pistols. (It's actually by The Ravers, though they are performing as the Pistols!) Once I had this song, which serves as the perfect opening to a playlist, I finally had a name for the list of 10 songs I had. In the ensuing 5 years, the list has grown, been trimmed and arranged into is current state. As a rule, I'm not allowed to alter nor listen to the list until Thanksgiving Day and then I am allowed to play the list and add new material to it until January 2.

At one time, Neil Gaiman's spoken word reading of his 100 word story Saint Nick preceded the list, but it didn't quite work as a party list.

Now, there is a bit of a misnomer in the title of the playlist. While it certainly started out as exclusively punk, the list really represents favorite songs from a variety of artists and genres. Most of them fall into either the "indie" (Regina Spektor, Sara Bareilles) or "alternative" genre. Genres so broad they negate the idea of classification. Essentially, the list serves as an overview of tastes in music (Ska, Punk, Emo, some Pop) and ranges in years (from former Beatles to songs no more than a year old!).

The '08 and '09 lists were both shaped into having a very loose narrative. This year's list carries that over, though with the amount of songs it becomes a little diluted, which is a good thing. In general the break down works out to be: Songs About the Season, Songs About/Set On Christmas Eve, Songs About Santa, Songs About Christmas Day, Songs about Winter, Songs about New Years Eve/Day. I liked the idea of the playlist having some structure to it and found it easy to plug the songs into these vague categories. So without further ado, here's the latest Punk Christmas Playlist. It clocks in at 42 tracks and just shy of 2.5 hours.

1. Punk Rock Christmas - The Ravers
2. Come On Christmas - Cheap Trick
3. Oi to the World - No Doubt
4. Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End) - The Darkness
5. Come Christmas, Christmas Come On - Ringo Starr
6. Holiday Fortnight - The Specials
7. Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight) - The Ramones
8. Blue Christmas - The Toasters
9. Please Daddy (Don't Get Drunk This Christmas) - The Decemberists
10. My First Christmas (As A Woman) - The Vandals
11. Christmas with the Devil - Spinal Tap
12. Alone This Holiday - The Used
13. Rudy Spent Christmas In Jail - The Toasters
14. White Christmas - Stiff Little Fingers
15. Last Christmas - Jimmy Eat World
16. Run Rudolph Run - Keith Richards
17. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Joey Ramone
18. A Great Big Sled - The Killers
19. Yellin' at the X-Mas Tree - Billy Idol
20. All I Want for Christmas Is You - My Chemical Romance
21. Christmas Song - Weezer
22. The Holiday Song - Pixies
23. Father Christmas - The Kinks
24. Don't Shoot Me Santa - The Killers
25. There Ain't No Santa Claus - The Damned
26. There Are Much Worse Things to Believe In - Elivs Costello/Stephen Colbert
27. Fairytale of New York - No Use for A Name
28. The First Noel - Bad Religion
29. Yule Shoot Your Eye Out - Fall Out Boy
30. Christmas - The Who
31. Christmas Day - MxPx
32. Song for Ten (from Doctor Who) - Neil Hannon
33. Happy X-Mas (War Is Over) - John Lennon
34. Winter Winds - Mumford & Sons
35. Holiday - Vampire Weekend
36. Winter Song - Sara Bareilles/Ingrid Michaelson
37. A Woman In Winter - The Skids
38. Cold and Camp - Rivers Cuomo
39. Winterlong - Pixies
40. Together We'll Ring in the New Year - Motion City Soundtrack
41. My Dear Acquaintance (A Happy New Year) - Regina Spektor
42. New Year's Day - U2

Regeneration

2010-11-28T10:07:00.000-08:00

or, "Yet Another Attempt at a Blog"

Hello again. So I've decided yet again to start up a blog. If I'm not mistaken - and I very rarely am - this marks my fourth attempt at such a thing. Before this blog lasted a glorious 3 posts, I had another blog, now lost to the sands of time, on WordPress. And then I think or Xanga, or some such. There's possibly a LiveJournal in there. But that was more for show or whatever.

But that's all prologue. I hope that this recent spat of motivation to work on this blog lasts longer than previous attempts. I'm excited about talking about my geeky life, my furtive exploration of Popular Culture and some attempts at digital ethnography. Since starting this blog, I've joined a fantastic online community, have become a fairly popular twitter personage and am now employed as a Professor of Anthropology. My perspectives have changed a bit, my drives and motivations as well.

The Regeneration of this blog starts today! I should have a blog post up later today with a late November tradition: The Punk Rock Christmas Playlist. Some be sure to stick around and check it out.

Review - American Nerd: The Story of My People

2008-07-14T15:04:00.001-07:00

or, "I didn't know this came with a d20 Monster Manual?"

I purchased American Nerd: The Story of My People by Benjamin Nugent last night, after dinner. I randomly couldn't fall asleep and decided it would behoove me to stay up and read the whole damned book. I had become interested in the book shortly after seeing Mr. Nugent on the Carson Daly Show.

Nerds are certainly an interesting subject for a cultural studies/sociological book, but they're also a subject which lacks any real hard research or extended study. So it was with a little trepidation, and a lot of anticipation, that I began the book at 4 a.m. this morning.

The book started out fairly strong with an explanation of the origins of the term (and terms used before) nerd. It's a fairly straight forward origin, but interesting nonetheless. Much of the exploration, though, centers on extrapolating the key characteristics of the archetypal nerd from fictional characters. It's a good idea for illustrating that nerd traits existed early in history, but it is not definitive proof of nerds before 1900.

Throughout the history section, it felt like attention was paid to the historical facts of why the word exists and not so much why nerds exist. And there is only a brief mention of geeks, but no effort is made to explain if they are synonymous or even just related terms. So while it is a great etymological look at the word nerd, without a good deal of context, it doesn't explain why nerds exist at all, other than a pithy (and thrice repeated) Thomas Jefferson probably was a nerd.

The second part of the book focuses on illustrations of nerddom in America. However, most of these miss the mark. Instead of explaining differences among the nerd sub-groups (LARPing, debaters, gammers, etc.) it basically just presents the author's observations of their activities. And they're often not wrapped up in any finite way. It's as if the author is afraid to label the nerds, but the whole point of the book is to explain the story of a labeled people.

What becomes clear through reading the book is that this isn't so much "The story of [Nugent's] people" but "the story of Nugent's evolution beyond nerddom." He admits to a certain amount of alienation from some of the nerd groups. He often talks about growing away from his friends Darren and Kenneth (the two "Case studies" of the book). And, indeed, there are some curious, unnerd-like errors. (The author states that Princess Peach, in the game Super Smash Bros. Melee, is married to "The Prince." A character not in the game.)

And finally we get an awkward epilogue about the author's bad experiences with therapy as a child. It's a bit incongruous to the book, especially since it falls under the heading "My qualifications."

Ultimately, American Nerd is a fun, light read that will help shed some light on nerd-culture. It doesn't attempt to study nerds and it certainly isn't reflective of the author as he is today. Or at least, the author would have you believe he has vastly distanced himself from nerds. It reads more as part memoir, part history book. Perhaps it should be reexamined as being part of "cultural studies." And moved to a more appropriate part of the book store.

I pretty much mirror the sentiments of these two reviewers on Amazon.com.

Here's a link to the book's home page as well. Be warned, apparently they didn't realize that Wired's review calling it a "mock ethnography"is a bit of a backhanded compliment and shouldn't be so prominently placed.

Rating: 3/5

Secret Origins: 1986-1990

2008-07-14T11:31:00.000-07:00

or, "My own personal radioactive spider bite."

I was born in the late 80s. February 2, 1986 to be exact. It was an interesting time. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was in reruns, The Transformers were in their prime and G.I. Joe: The Movie was right around the corner. It's important to remember that these are three of the most infamous "Toys first" series. For those that don't know, action figures existed for all three franchises before there was linking material, either comics or a cartoon. It was conceived of as a good way to market toys to children, build a series around a set of interesting looking figures. And from what I know it worked. A trip down my basement today would reveal a big 20 gallon tub full of He-Man toys. Many of my Transformers took a trip to the yard sale, including an original die-cast Optimus Prime. (Extremely valuable if you had all the accessories, but, of course, I had lost all but the largest piece: Optimus himself.) I had a lot of G.I. Joes, but they were often lost "scuba diving" in the sump pump in the basement when I was 4. These were three very important shows for children of my era, we may have been a bit older than much of the first run shows, but all three series were successful. As a matter of fact He-Man was briefly on two channels, though I mostly remember it being on USA.

However, the most important cartoon of my childhood was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles it followed me as I grew, premiering two months shy of my second birthday and running till about 1995. TMNT figures, the liar, the Turtle-Van all can be found on shelves in my basement. The Technodrome is, admittedly, a little mildew-y. Turtles sort of defined my generation. My cousin, Harry demanded the He-Man Castle Grey Skull playset to just a year before I was born to be the ring bearer at my aunt's wedding. When it was Christmas and I was three, only one thing ruled my mind: TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES -- HEROES ON A HALF SHELL. TURTLE POWER! And ask most kids, even some girls, around my age and you'll find Turtle fans.

It seems that even before I could be exposed to anything else I had these four cartoons vying for my attention. I was a loyal TMNT fan, but there was something about Prince Adam, Cringer (Err... that is, He-Man and Battlecat!), Orko and Man-at-Arms that drew me in. Drew me in enough that at three or four I pretty much figured out that the show switched to another network. A cable network at that. Big doings in '89 and '90.

But then I discovered something waiting in the wings after He-Man finished it's two episode a day rotation on USA (usually after really creepy public service announcements with Orko telling you to tell an adult if someone touches your "private spots.") I can't say for certain, but this is probably something like the first image I saw of this following show:
Yes. That's right, chum. Batman. Adam West and Burt Ward quickly became my new action heroes. The campy 1960s series had found a home on USA. (Unfortunately fans such as myself, the rights to this series are very, very screwed up and it will probably never see DVD.) There's not much I can say about this series. If you've seen it you know all about. The Bat-Computer. The Bat-Microphone (both of which can be seen above; Missing are the Bat-Beaker and Bat-Thermometer. No, for real). And of course the Shark Repellent Bat-Spray.
(And the best joke ever, from the tie-in movie. "It happened at sea. Sea for Catwoman!" Thanks for playing, Boy Wonder, you get this... WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT WAS AN ACTUAL CLUE?)

Perhaps the most "disturbing episode" of Batman was when Robin was turned to the "darkside" by the terrible team-up of The Riddler and Catwoman. They employed the bizzarely sexy Pinky (one of Catwoman's cat-themed henchmen, except with a pink costume) with her extra long, red pinky nail to scratch Robin with an evil poison that made him turn on Batman. Only... Robin was acting the whole time! Huzzah!

But the cliffhanger that gave me nightmares for a week (ensuring I did tune in Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Channel) was when Robin gets devoured by a giant clam! I still think this might be why I don't eat seafood.
You can see the stunning "reveal" of that cliffhanger in this clip:

But the final nail in the "geek for life" coffin I was falling into was comic books. My mother owned a dancing school when I was little. She would have to bring me to the school after pre-school and such. Normally we'd walk over to the Pharmacy on the corner and I'd pick out a coloring book. But that's about all I did. Then one day, I ran out of coloring books to choose from in the drug store. I was three at the time, so my mother sought out something else to occupy my time. She took me across the street to a newsstand, and upon walking in I saw them. Their dark, pre-90s chrome and pre-13 variant cover, covers amazed me. Here was an issue with the Batman fighting the Joker. Here was one with Robin on his own. Here was one with a colorful cast of misfits called the X-Men, though I wouldn't pick that one up till later. More or less my mother bought me the superheroes she knew: Superman & Batman. I was never the biggest Superman fan, but, any port in a storm.

While I wasn't the best reader, I could imagine dialog to go with the panels. Sometimes I made my own stories, sometimes I struggled through the ones that were there. But I loved every minute of them! I didn't really keep my comics at that age, and it's a shame. Really until 1992, I read mostly Batman comics with he occasional Superman. Or maybe there was a colorful DC book out that week and picked it up. I don't recall much about the content of the stories around this time, just that Batman won.

But that was it. Cartoons and comics got me started on the path. The interesting thing is that I more or less became a better reader because of comics. So much for the "They rot your mind" argument. Rot this!

While there are far more influences that I was aware of at the time, looking back 18 to 20 years later, I don't feel the impact. A show like Thundercats is considered a big cult hit, I can tell you I've probably seen about 1 episode.

Misadventures in Pop Culutre

2008-07-14T10:06:00.000-07:00

or, "What this blog is for and about"

So this is my third attempt at a proper blog. I think my biggest issue in the past has been finding stuff to write about. I'm not one to keep a blog about my daily happenings, unless it's something terribly interesting. It won't be a place for me to bitch about school or work, because that's so cliché at this point it hurts.

What this blog will be for is an exploration of my evolution as a geek from humble beginnings as a mild-mannered 3 year old to full-fledged Graduate Student at 22. And hopefully beyond. It's a bit of a task, enumerating my many influences, but I imagine it's probably a fantastic writing exercise and a good way to find other geeks. From time to time you may see a review or commentary on something I've just read, seen, heard or made up on the spot, but mostly this will be a record of my influences.

The germ for this blog came about after I read Benjamin Nugent's American Nerd: The Story of My People. It was an interesting read (and quick). While reading it, I got to thinking about my experiences as a young geek/nerd in the 90s and early aughts. And then Bada-bum-ba! I realized this might be the best way to get my thoughts out there on geekdom and nerd culture. So that's it on the content of the blog from here on, now here's a bit of background.

About the Blogger
For as long as I can remember I've been a geek. Cartoons, music, movies, books & comics. You name it; I love it. Now I wouldn't say I'm the "classical" nerd/geek. Despite my origins in the four-color, pulp world, I was heavily shaped by the sounds of 70s punk idols like the The Damned, The Clash and SeX pIsToLs as well as early 90s grunge and punk. That's me in a nutshell. I hope you stick around to find out more.

I'm 22 years old and a recent graduate of Fordham University with a BA in Anthropology and Communications & Media Studies. In September I'll be attending Teachers College, Columbia University to study Anthropology & Education for an MA.

I'm a member of the Media Ecology Association and the American Anthropologist Association.