Welcome to All The [NERD] Rage, a lightning-round style review of the top nerd stories of the week. These are stories the Muggles may or might not be aware of. It’s time to catch up, so we’d better just get right into it.
- Steve Jobs Retires From Apple
This one is a story we’re all aware of, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few days, After dealing with health problems for a number of years, Steve Jobs officially stepped down as Apple’s CEO this week. It’s always sad when a visionary pioneer hangs his hat. It doesn’t matter if you’re an Apple fanboy or not, we have all benefited from his innovation. So, thank you Steve. We wish you the best, and godspeed.
- Marvel Changes It Up With A New Spiderman
As you may or may not know, Marvel Comics has recently killed off Peter Parker. We will soon be getting a new webslinger in the comics. In an effort to be more reflective of our modern cultural diversity, the new character will be half African-American and half Hispanic. Thanks, Marvel, for changing things up. This new perspective should prove for some interesting times to come. And this is also good news for Donald Glover fans. The star of NBC’s sitcom Community went on a Twitter campaign in an effort to get cast in the upcoming Spiderman reboot. Unfortunately, he lost out to Andrew Garfield (The Social Network). But who knows, maybe Glover will get to play Spiderman some day yet. Fingers crossed.
[Source: blastr]
- Nerd Movie News
- Conan the Barbarian tanked at the box office in its first week. Some blame the film’s star, Jason Momoa, for not being enough of a draw. Maybe he wasn’t mo-moa enough. This whole thing brings up two concerns: (a) this doesn’t bode well for Disney’s upcoming nerdfest John Carter of Mars, and (b) what does this mean for the future of R rated movies? Do studio execs think Conan might have performed better as a PG-13 rated action flick, as opposed to the R rated barbaric affair?
-
- The Avengers assembled and hyped it up. First, pics leaked online of a fight scene including both Captain America and Thor. Adding to the subsequent nerdgasm, Disney released some actual movie footage at their recent D23 festival. The scenes that were shown are not available online, but word on the street is that The Avengers “will own.” So, DC Comics, have you changed your mind about a Justice League movie yet? Hmmm…?
-
- Ridley Scott will reportedly be making a new Blade Runner movie. Nerd reactions vary wildly. Some are excitedly anticipating what they believe will be another masterpiece, some are calling for an end to this revisiting (and what they call ruining) of the classics. Those of us with cooler heads are simply awaiting Scott’s upcoming sci-fi horror outing Prometheus.
- HP Touchpad Madness Overtakes Techies
Unable to compete against Apple’s behemoth iPad, HP threw in the towel and discontinued their tablet device. The price of the HP Touchpad was thus slashed all the way down to $99 at some vendors. What was once scorned suddenly became the hot commodity. Techies were snatching them up in a mad rush this week. Overzealous cheapskates? That’s for you to decide. And hey, you could always use one as a virtual photo frame or an eReader.
- GameStop Store Policy Causes Controversy And Enrages Gamers
Video game retailer GameStop made the nerd news this week by once again causing controversy. The PC release of the new Square Enix title Deus Ex: Human Revolution contained coupon codes for a third-party service called OnLive. Since GameStop is planning on releasing a rival service in the near future, they apparently weren’t happy. According to reports, GameStop had their employees open the Deus Ex boxes upon sale, and physically remove the OnLive coupon codes. The game was then being sold as new at full price. Needless to say gamers hit the Internet in droves, wasting no time in getting out their angry missives. Although admitting nothing publicly at this time, strangely enough GameStop is now pulling the game from store shelves in a reported recall.
[Source: Game Rant]
- Portal: No Escape Is Amazeballs
Director Dan Trachtenberg unleashed his sci-fi short film on YouTube this week. Based on ideas from the immensely popular video game franchise by Valve, Portal: No Escape succeeds on all counts. Not only a technical achievement, it has already garnered over 3 million views. Having directed many television commercials, Trachtenberg now has his sites set on making a feature film. Nerds may recognize him as one of the three hosts from the Revision3 video podcast The Totally Rad Show. If you’ve seen that show before, may have thought to yourself, “That dork won’t make a feature.” After having watched Portal: No Escape I can tell you- yes, that dork will be making a feature sometime soon. If you’re a sci-fi fan and you haven’t watched it yet, you’re going to want to change that. And the music is kicking, so make sure to turn the sound up.
[Portal: No Escape can be found on YouTube here.]
Well, that about does it for this week in nerddom. If you think I’ve missed anything, feel free to add more Nerd Rage in the comments below.
jeffsilvey.com 
For clarity’s sake, I should point out that the new Blade Runner film isn’t supposed to be a remake, but instead will be simply another chapter in the franchise.
LikeLike
Franchise? Apart from the original, was there a film that I missed here? Also, let’s remember that Blade Runner was an adaptation of a one-off Phillip K. Dick short story so it’s not like there’s a whole Chronicles of Narnia-like series out there. However, as long as Ridley Scott is involved, I feel this is probably something we can look forward to.
LikeLike
Well, actually there’s a “Blade Runner Fish & Chips” on my corner, and I know there’s another one in San Antonio, so that’s a franchise. 😉
As long as he doesn’t bring in a Jar Jar Binks, I think we’ll be alright.
LikeLike
Great! I usually don’t get much time to catch up on nerdy news, but this puts the highlights all in once place. I’d already seen the Portal short film (and you can’t not hear about Steve Jobs), but the rest was news to me. Thanks!
LikeLike
Thanks, Chris.
LikeLike
Awesome! Your blog just got sexy. 😉
LikeLike
Thanks. Glad you liked it.
LikeLike
Depressing:
1. Imma get the depressing bullet outta the way fast. Steve Jobs will forever be to me, “The man who shares the rare cancer that claimed my mom.” I don’t think I even realized it till I saw this and went, “Oh, so that’s why I feel blue every time I hear his name.”
Not-depressing:
1. Spiderman: As mom to a biracial child, I’m pretty excited by this. I recently got Li’l D a board book called Jacob Lawrence, featuring almost exclusively drawings of black families/kids. I thought it would be a nice change for him, but wouldn’t you know, he now requests Jacob Lawrence–by name!–nightly. “Again. Again. Again.” When it’s time to go to bed, he says, “Nai-nai, Jacob Rawrence.” I’m excited to see how he’ll respond and relate to different characters over the years. Also, I’m glad to have had a chance during our comic book store trip last weekend to rectify a serious problem: Li’l D could name Spiderman, but not Superman. Horror of horrors for this gal, who has a half-dozen Superman shirts alone! 😀
2. Conan: I’m guessing this tanked because the trailer blew. I watched it and thought, “I wouldn’t even watch that at the dollar theater!” So, atrocious (seemingly accurate) trailer is where I’d put my money if I were a betting gal!
3. Prometheus: First time hearing of this. I am so in!
4. Touchpads: Ba.D. and I went to Best Buy for a movie last week. I was baffled by the line until he explained the situation. The line was fairly short, so I said, “Hmm, maybe I should get one? Just because?” Ba.D.’s look seemed to indicate that would be a douchey thing to do, so I left ’em for the folks who really want ’em.
LikeLike
I’m sorry about your mom. That must be really difficult, to have such a constant reminder of things.
Touchpads: I don’t know if that would have been douchey. Maybe a little, but you gotta get them when you can- so to speak. For my money, I would say just spend a little more and get the least expensive Kindle (not a tablet, I know). It’s better to read on than a tablet anyway, in my opinion.
LikeLike
Degrees of Separation Dept.
Were you aware that Ridley Scott directed the famous 1984 Super Bowl Apple Macintosh ad? This links two individuals mentioned in this week’s rant. I suppose you also could’ve mentioned how Thor trashed his local Game Stop outlet after having his third party service coupon violently removed from his copy of Deus Ex.
LikeLike
No, I totally forgot he directed that commercial. Good catch, my friend.
LikeLike