Same Geek Channel: the ‘Supergirl’ Pilot
Does the ‘Supergirl’ pilot live up to the promise of its excellent trailer? Our opinions are mixed.
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Author: Jim MacQuarrie
When he's not arming children for the zombie apocalypse or coaching the USC Trojan Archery team, Jim is writing about "all the stuff that would have gotten you a wedgie in 1976" at AtomicJunkShop.com and serving as the President of CAPS, the Comic Art Professional Society. His kids are all grown up, and his wife is patiently waiting for him to do likewise.
The Real Truth About Disney’s “Recycled Animation” – Updated
Recently, many news and entertainment sites have circulated this video showing how “Disney animators reused animation from old movies.” In every report, the story is invariably told that this was done to save time and money, but nobody actually asked anyone who might know for sure. Since nobody else was going to do it, we did.
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Word Nerd: In a Stately Manner
Today we discuss minding our manners… and our manors.
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8 Things Parents Should Know About ‘Tomorrowland’
Disney’s Tomorrowland opens today. Find out what you should know as a parent before taking the family this holiday weekend.
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Meet the ‘Tomorrowland’ Cast and Crew
The stars, writers and director of Tomorrowland assembled for a press conference in Beverly Hills two weeks ago, and GeekDad was there. Answering questions from the Moderator and audience were writers Jeff Jensen and Damon Lindelof, actors Tim McGraw, Britt Robertson, George Clooney and Raffey Cassidy, as well as director/co-writer/co-producer, Brad Bird.
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‘Dozi the Alligator Finds a Family’
Cartoonist Dan Boris has published the first of a series of children’s books starring a little alligator named Dozi (“Izod” spelled backward) who adopts a vacationing family and sneaks into their luggage. Dozi the Alligator Finds a Family goes on sale this week with the author hosting a book launch and signing party at One More Page Books & More in Arlington, Virginia on May 30.
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Word Nerd: It’s Inflammable!
Every so often, somebody will email me about words and meanings. Sometimes it’s a suggestion for words that they’ve seen misused (most recently, invasive when evasive was meant), sometimes it’s a question. Recently, my friend Sara Mallory sent a Facebook message asking about today’s words. What’s the difference between them?
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Word Nerd: A Miner Detail
Today’s set of words touches on a sad bit of history; often in the past (and even in the present day in some places) miners were often minors, though minors were not always miners.
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Girl Does Not Fail Her Prom with ‘Arrow’-Inspired Dress
Danielle Taylor, a high school student in Georgia, thought her school’s choice of prom theme was “awful,” so she decided that a little heroic action was called for.
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Word Nerd: On the Mantle
Today’s Word Nerd topic is one of those cases where a single word has split into two terms, with a difference in spelling to parallel the difference in meaning: mantel and mantel.
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Word Nerd: Send Up a Flair
Today’s words are somewhat similar, in that both are about drawing attention and both terms have to do with senses; one is a bright light, the other a strong smell. Flair and flare.
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GeekDad: The Formative Years III
Continuing in our ongoing series in which the GeekDads reveal the influences that transformed them into geeks, here are the Secret Origins of Jim MacQuarrie and Roger Mullins. I get to go first because I’m older.
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New CW ‘Arrow/Flash’ Promo Has a GeekDad Connection
This very cool “Superhero Fight Club” promo for ‘Arrow’ and ‘The Flash’ was just released by the CW this morning. Let me tell you about the GeekDad connection….
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Word Nerd: Defuse Light
This week’s Word Nerd subject is another of those cases where using the wrong one can result in a sentence that says almost the exact opposite of what was meant. Defuse and diffuse.
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RIP Stan Freberg
Stan Freberg, the man who made TV commercials funny and American history hilarious, passed away this morning. His son, Donovan Freberg, posted an announcement on his Facebook page today. Details are not yet known. He was 88.
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Word Nerd: Accept for Me
This week’s Word Nerd topic is an example of that rare bird, the antonym, which is defined as “two words that are opposites,” which makes it a little comical to see this error in action. Accept and except.
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Word Nerd: Amusing Antidote
Here’s another Word Nerd pair that turns up with alarming regularity; is it possible that some people don’t know they are two different words? Anecdote and antidote.
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Visiting Pixar and ‘Inside Out’
Pixar is hard at work on its next film, ‘Inside Out,’ opening June 19. A short time ago, I visited Pixar’s Emoryville campus to interview Director Pete Docter and Producer Jonas Rivera.
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‘Comic Book People 2’ Kickstarter Campaign
Last year, a successful Kickstarter campaign resulted in the book ‘Comic Book People: Photographs from the 1970s and 1980s,’ a well-received visual history of the first two decades of San Diego’s Comic-Con International. Now, author/photographer Jackie Estrada, administrator of the annual Will Eisner Awards (who is also, with her husband Batton Lash, the co-publisher of Exhibit A Press, which publishes Lash’s comic, ‘Supernatural Law’), has compiled a second volume covering the 1990s.
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New Hawkeye Images for ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’
The latest round of posters and promotional images for ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ have been released, and as usual, the question I’m asked whenever Hawkeye shows up is “what about the archery?” So let’s take a look.
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Word Nerd: Vice Grip
Today’s pair of words is uniquely American; the British are sensible enough to spell both words the same way. We have vice and vise, but in England, it’s vice and vice. If you’re British, you can ignore this week’s installment if you like.
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Impressive Archer Shows Real Skills
YouTube channel Smarter Every Day has posted a video of Alabama archer Byron Ferguson demonstrating his skills. In contrast to some other archers, he doesn’t spend any time making grandiose claims about his own skills or offering insulting assertions about modern target archers; he just steps up and shows what good instinctive archery looks like.
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Word Nerd: Viola!
For today’s Word Nerd topic, we’ll look at a word we swiped from another language and have since abused mercilessly, including a whole lot of attempts at what the academics call “invented spelling.” Viola and voila.
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Word Nerd: Illicit Response
Today’s Word Nerd pair actually makes it into print every so often, usually with amusing results for those of us who get it. This is a case where using the wrong word can really change the meaning of a sentence. Elicit and illicit.
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RIP Gary Owens
The last great radio voice has left us. Gary Owens, the voice of Roger Ramjet, Powdered Toast Man, Space Ghost, the Blue Falcon, and many more, died at his home in Encino, California, on Thursday. He was 80 years old and had been ill for some time.
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Word Nerd: Guilty Conscious
This week’s Word Nerd is one of those that actually surprised me; I thought that because the two are relatively harder to spell than most of our frequently-confused words, fewer people would mess them up. Of course, the fact that they evolved from different conjugations of the same Latin word may have something to do with the confusion.
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Word Nerd: Heroine Overdose
This week’s Word Nerd is another that I’ve seen recently on Facebook, and it may be yet another autocorrect failure; perhaps your iPhone would prefer you discuss Wonder Woman rather than narcotics. It’s an example of that old nemesis, the silent e. Heroin and heroine.
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‘It’s Dark Here’: Every Parent’s Nightmare
This story does not have a happy ending. It’s about a film called It’s Dark Here, and it does get dark here. It’s a true story, and it’s every parent’s worst nightmare.
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Director Gary Rydstrom Talks About Strange Magic
Director Gary Rydstrom has a lengthy career in Hollywood, most famously as a sound designer at Lucasfilm and Skywalker Sound, working on films ranging from Saving Private Ryan to Wreck-It Ralph. Strange Magic represents his debut as a feature film director.
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Danish “Archer” Demonstrates Gullibility of Audience
You know that video making the rounds, supposedly demonstrating amazing “lost” archery skills? Our archery expert shoots it full of holes.
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