Nerd Culture Podcast

NCP hits episode 10! We’ve entered the teens – there’s no stopping us now!

Episode #10 features:

Dust Jacket: The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

War Room: Sci-Fi Predictions that came true

Interview with the creator of Liberty Meadows, Mr Frank Cho (from Armageddon Expo Melbourne)

And a special audio Feedback

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Today I was flicking through an assortment of cheap DVD’s at a newsagent and stumbled across Some Girls.

Starring Jennifer Connelly and Patrick Dempsey, and released in 1988, I caught this gem of a film on late night TV one night about 10 years ago and tried to buy it but it proved elusive. I happily paid my $5 and watched it as soon as I got home. Some people class this as a teen sex comedy but Some Girls is much more than that.

The plot involves college student Michael, who has been invited to spend Christmas with the family of his lost love Gabriella D’Arc. He believes it is her attempt to take their relationship to the next step, but is shocked when she declares that she is no longer in love with him. Thus begins a emotional rollercoaster of a week, as he attempts to rekindle their relationship, while fending off the sexual advances of her two equally attractive sisters, as well as dealing with their stern Catholic mother and eccentric father, (who is writing a book about Pascal and spends the entire film naked, as he cannot be creative while wearing clothes). If this was all there was I wouldn’t have been able to sit through it. There are some obvious metaphors in the film, like the 3 sisters representing Botticelli’s `Three Graces’, but they are subtle enough to not worry about as you are drawn into its two major themes -Love & Lust and Life & Death.

This is explored in Michael’s various relationships with the D’Arc family, but none more so than Granny, Gabriella’s maternal grandmother. Brilliantly portrayed by Lila Kedrova, Granny is introduced when the family go to visit her after one of her many escapes from the hospital. She mistangly believes Michael to be her deceased husband of the same same and is filled with joy to see him again. At first Michael is bemused and doesn’t give it much thought as he continues his single minded quest to win back the fickle and cruel heart of Gabriella, but this soon changes. Granny once again escapes into the wilderness and Michael joins in their frantic search to find her before she freezes to death.

In the end, it is Michael who finds Granny (or rather, Granny finds Michael, trapped in a hole). They find their way to the house Granny shared with her late husband and Michael gains a new perspective on love, as he undresses the soaking wet frail old woman and gets her warm. Still confusing him for her husband they talk about their past and she has new life, radiant just being with the man she loves. I challenge anyone not to be moved by these scenes, at the pure joy on Granny’s face, and Michael’s heart opening to a new world. During my review of John Carpenter’s Starman on the podcast I mentioned that it contained my favourite piece of dialogue that explained the meaning of Love. Well Some Girls has one of the best examples of showing someone falling in Love.

Spoiler follows the More tab….

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Being nerds we of course had to take advantage of the fact that we were in New Zealand and do some serious Lord of the Rings style sightseeing.

Hobbiton

Our first stop was Hobbiton, the set of The Shire. A tour guide led our group of about 30 people around and offered some fun facts about its development. It was very cool.

The set was constructed in 1999 and used for filming in all 3 films, but when filming was done 2/3 of the set were demolished. Luckily someone was smart enough to realise the money making potential of keeping the site open for tours and the surviving pieces were left for the huge amount of LotR fans to visit. But not long before our visit the site was recreated with brand new pieces in preparation for filming on The Hobbit. Hobbiton was returned to its full glory and we were part of the lucky few who were able to see it before it was closed for filming. In fact, it was closed 3 days after we were there and they are filming there right now!. Because of this we were made to sign confidentiality forms stating that we couldn’t post any pictures on the net or even discuss some of what we saw. Silly, but that’s Hollywood for you. So, that means I wont be able to put any pics in this post and I’m limited in what I can say so I will write only this and move on – it looks awesome!

Learn more about the Hobbiton tour here – www.hobbitontours.com

Flat Earth Tours

Our next exposure to the behind the scenes magic of LotR was in Wellington. This personalized tour takes a small group of people in a very cool mini van (electronic doors!) around the LotR filming locations in the Wellington area. Luckily for us we were the only people booked for our tour that day and our guide Mike was a very knowledgeable (of course) and generally awesome guy (bonus!). Part of Mike’s awesomeness was the fact that he was also a nerd. While traveling to the various sites we discussed all kinds of nerd related topics (seriously, his nerd knowledge rivaled my own!) and of course I took the opportunity to plug the site/podcast. These two factors combined were even enough to offset the fact that it was raining for most of the tour. The only thing the rain really affected was the walk to Rivendal so it wasn’t so bad.

So, give a Flat Earth tour a thought if you’re in Wellington, you wont be sorry. It is a great tour. Learn more about Flat Earth Tours here – www.flatearth.co.nz

Here are some of the sights from the tour:

Buckland Forest used in the “Get off the Road”/hiding from the Black Riders scene, falling down the edge after running through the corn field, and where they found the mushrooms

Weta Studios

The awesome Weta Cave – www.wetanz.com

the Anduin River where the Fellowship voyaged to Amon Hen

and the quarry used for the filming of Helms Deep in Rohan and Minas Tirith in Gondor

During our honeymoon I realised that I would need to purchase the final batch of comics for our coverage of DC’s new 52 for when we got back and, being in New Zealand I obviously couldn’t make it to my local store!

So we scoured Auckland for a comic store and was directed to Heroes for Sale at 277 Karangahape Road (or K Road as the locals call it).

Upon entering we were immediately impressed by the layout. Clean and easy on the eye, as well as well spaced, with a place for everything. Not only did they have single issue comics and trades (including an impressive selection of local comic creator works), but they also had a great range of action figures/collectables, board games and role playing supplements as well. The staff, who we later learned were the owners, were obviously very busy sorting that weeks standing orders but still took the time to greet us warmly and offer assistance. I expressed my desire to purchase all of that weeks batch of DC’s new 52. They took my name and offered to call me if they could accommodate me. Sure enough not long after they called with the news that I could indeed purchase all of the titles. I really appreciated this because, although this wasn’t stated, I definitely got the feeling that some strings were pulled in order to fulfill this order and that they may have missed out on getting their own copies in order to ensure I had mine. Excellent customer service.

When I returned to the store I had a great chat with the one of the owners, Stu (who with his wife Sue have been running the store together for 17 years), on various topics ranging from the state of the comics industry, the results from the new 52 event, and the Nerd Culture website/podcast. Interestingly enough, Stu said that DC’s target audience of 13-22 year olds in his area couldn’t afford single issues and it was actually older people like 18-25 that have been drawn in by the new 52 event, as well as the spate of superhero themed movies out recently. He also stated that Justice League was his favourite title up to that point, but he also liked Animal Man. He also gave me the address of a comic store in Wellington (but unfortunately our experience there was the complete opposite of this one). I could have stayed and chatted with Stu for a bit longer but I could see that he was starting to get quite busy so I said my goodbyes and left.

So, if you are in Auckland and in need of a comic fix then head to Heroes for Sale. I cannot praise them enough, you can’t go wrong. And tell ’em Nerd Culture Podcast sent ya!

For further info check out their website – http://www.heroes4sale.co.nz/

Some photos of the store:

Hi All!

As you can probably guess from the latest posts (Episode #9 & DC’s new 52 Audio post) Crystal and I have returned from our honeymoon and are back in action on the site and podcast.

Thanks to Richo and Luke for their contributions during our absence, some great stuff there.

Thanks to everyone who left us congratulation messages 🙂

If I beg my lovely wife I might even be able to post some photos, so wish me luck.

And now, back to our regular scheduling!