My Top Ten Picks for TableTop Guest-Players

So, my favorite show over on Geek and Sundry is Wil Wheaton’s TableTop.  If you haven’t seen it or at least heard of it, you are either not enough of a nerd to be reading my blog or you have been hiding under the preverbal rock.  Either way, it is a webseries in which Wil Wheaton level Celebrates play nerdy table top games (usually Euro style board games, but dice, card, roll playing, and Ameritrash games as well).  Here’s a sample episode (this episode runs about 25 minutes):

This list is my picks for Guest-Players who need to appear on the show. 

10.       Lisa Foiles – a quasi-famous former TV star turned internet phenomenon (like Wil Wheaton).  Lisa is probably best remembered for appearing on Nickelodeon’s All That, but is now better known as a video game journalist and web-star – previously hosting The Game Station’s Remag and currently hosting Top Five with Lisa Foiles.  Plus, we already know she’ll win, cause she’s a redhead, and redheads always win on TableTop. 

9.         Katee Sackhoff and Tricia Helfer – probably not the biggest celebs to ever appear on TableTop (Jeri Ryan is at least as big, right? And Seth Green?).  This duo of BSG stars are no stranger to YouTube nerdom appearances.  Katee appears in Team Unicorn’s “Geek and Gamer Girls” music video and Tricia is in The Nerd Machine’s miniseries Trailer Park Heroes. 

8.         Adrianne Curry – this is either a stroke of genius or a recipe for disaster.  Should be fun to watch either way.  Not only is Adrianne a self admitted nerd and video gamer, but she also has a show Super Fans on Stan Lee’s World of Heroes YouTube channel and let’s face it, you can’t have more nerd cred than Stan Lee.  She is, however, a bit scandalous…and naughty…and nsfw.

7.         Joss Whedon – a god in the greater nerd pantheon, Whedon is responsible for Buffy, Firefly, Dr. Horrible, Dollhouse, and Marvel’s The Avengers.  He’s also responsible for Felicia Day (who first rose to nerd prominence in Buffy, Dr. Horrible, and Dollhouse) and he’s already made an appearance on Geek and Sundry starring in “Scary Smash,” the inaugural episode of Written By a Kid. 

6.         Dr. Drea Letamendi (@ArkhamAsylumDoc) – Fangirl, cosplayer, psychologist.  Drea is, in fact, Barbara “Batgirl” Gordon’s shrink in Gail Simone’s Batgirl.  Drea is also an expert on the psychology of “fandom.”

5.         Jim Parsons  – there is this one show, you may have heard of it.  It’s called something like The Big Bang Theory maybe, does that sound right?  Anyway, there’s this one character on the show named Dr. Sheldon Cooper and this Sheldon has an arch-nemesis named Wil Wheaton (played by Wil Wheaton, the host of TableTop).  Their rivalry is often expressed in friendly games of competition, such as bowling and the fictional trading card game Mystic Warlords of Ka’a.  Bringing Parsons onto TableTop – a show were Wil almost always looses – would finally allow Sheldon to pull one over on his mortal enemy.  Or maybe he’ll just yell “Wheeeeatoooon!”  Either way. 

4.         Liz Katz – or as my mom calls her: the naughty aerobics instructor (look for Super-Hero Boot Camp on YouTube to make that make more since).  Liz is a hard to classify girl.  She’s smart and funny and nerdy.  But she’s hot and dingy and hot, too.  Some of her videos are a little lame (I’m looking at you “I Don’t Wanna Be a Turtle”), but overall she’s pretty entertaining, if a little ADHD at times (to check her out better, head over to YouTube and take a look at her channel or watch my playlist “The Best of LizKatz.”

3.         Katie Wilson – let’s let Katie speak for herself:

A fan movement to get Katie onto TableTop is in the works and hopefully this one at least can come true.   On a side note: Chad and Angie from Screen Team Show would be another similarly ideal group to appear on the show, either in the same episode as Katie or in a separate one. 

2.         Nathan Fillion – ok, probably way out of Geek and Sundry’s budget, but we can always hope.  I mean, come on!  The Geek God himself on the Geek show!  Possibly in a themed episode with John Barrowman and Anne Wheaton.  And if you don’t know why you should definitely google image search “Nathan Fillion Wil Wheaton.”  It was the first two pics when I tried. 

1.         Me – I think that one is pretty self explanatory. 

So that’s my list.  Who would you like to see on TableTop?  Leave a comment or let me know on my twitter @nerdisnewcool.

Until next time,

Nerd Is The New Cool, signing off.

This Nerd's Life

So, since last time I've done a few things...

Firstly, I bought an Xbox 360 and am on Xbox Live, both for the first time.  As I've said before, see our award winning blog entry Summer of the Nerd, I'm not a big (video) gamer.  So this is kinda a deal...something of a Real World Quest to add on some XP to up my Nerd Level.  

Secondly, I'm almost finished reading The Cases That Haunt Us by former FBI profiler John Douglas.  It's an interesting read, I especially enjoyed the sections on Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac.  If I don't get to lazy, I'll post a review on Good Reads and post a link in an upcoming blog.  But I'll probably get to lazy.  

Nextly, I started reading Game of Thrones.  Hopefully, this will get Katie Wilson to stop telling me over and over and over how great it is...hold on my wife is saying something...what?  No way... I am not an idiot...sorry for the interruption, my wife was trying to tell me Katie isn't talking to me directly in her blog, but it's prerecorded and everyone can see it...silly wife.  You know what I'm talking about don't you, person I'm writing this directly to... Anyway, Game of Thrones, I'm 225 pages in and it's pretty good so far.  Still haven't got to episode 3 of the HBO show yet, but, you know, eventually.  It's awesome and all, so...I'm just really worried about how my wife will react when...NO SPOILERS!...'cause she's crazy in the head...

Thenly (WTF's with all the "-ly" endings, Nerd?  You were an English major for crying out loud.  Knock it off...), my dad bought Last Night on Earth the Zombie board game...he took it home with him though...butt-head. 

Alsoly, Shadowman 1 came out it's awesome...go check it out...

Finally (I said knock off the "-ly" bullstuff...oh wait, that one's right, never mind ..), I went to Diwali Night: great show (singing, dancing, comedy), great food, and a great job by everyone involved.  Congrats to the Oklahoma State University Indian Student Association for putting together a great program.  Especially, to my kids - past and present who participated - who were part of this event.  You know who you are and I am very proud of all of you.   

And now back to our regularly scheduled Top Ten, already not in progress...

I was going to do a Top Ten Characters I want to see in the Justice League Movie, but that is a little more in-depth than I want to go tonight so will added to the "but that's another" blog list.  So this week, we're doing the whole no top ten thing this week.  

And I wanna hear from you...what have you been up to this last week?  Why didn't you write my blog?  Who do you think Jack the Ripper really was?  Why is a raven like a writing desk?  Should more words end in "-ly?"  Leave a comment below or hit up my twitter page @nerdisnewcool.

Nerd is the New Cool, signing off
  

P.S.ly, if Katie Wilson is reading this, you don't need a restraining order, I'm not actually crazy...but I understand if you get one.  

The Summer of the Nerd

I’ve always been a nerd… I think.  I might be a geek instead.  I’ve recently discovered that either I don’t know the difference or there isn’t one. 

I’ve seen stuff online that basically says a geek is a high functioning nerd.  A nerd is an obsessed, intelligent, socially awkward person and a geek an obsessed, intelligent, not socially awkward person.  On the other hand, I’ve heard a geek is a more socially awkward, less intelligent nerd, or that a geek’s intelligence is limited to technology.  I’ve also read that a geek is obsessed with multiple things “nerdy” and a nerd with only one or two specific things, but I’ve also read the exact opposite of that two. 

Regardless, I identify myself as a nerd, mostly because I’ve always identified myself that way. 

My nerdy obsessions have always been limited to a couple of areas (comic books, horror and sci-fi movies, some cult TV shows) and I’ve never gotten into many others (video games and the whole gaming community have always been outside my area – I got an NES back when it was still cool, but my most recent game system purchase was a GameCube and when I bought it Wii, PS3, and X-Box 360 had all been around for a while). 

This summer though, I’ve been starting to expand my geekdom and nerd culture.  So, this week on Nerd Is the New Cool, I’m showcasing my Top Ten New Nerd Obsessions (in no particular order)

Conan the Barbarian

This one may be a little further back than “summer” but I recently started reading a collection of Robert E. Howard’s Conan short stories, and it has dominated my kindle ever since.  My current Conan obsession stems out of my long standing Lovecraft/Cthulhu obsession and this as a whole works well with my other new obsessions below. 

YouTube

Aw, YouTube, how have I lived without you?  Ok, that’s not true.  I have been watching YouTube for awhile now: Candy Mountain Charlie, The Guild, and Bite Me have long been in my browser history, but only recently did I truly become a YouTube junky.  Blame ScreenTeam’s Pokémon/Party Rock video.  I found it one night while watching the Party Rock music video, 6 hours later, I’d watched a ton of ScreenTeam and Black Nerd videos, plus discoved Felicia Day’s Geek and Sundry channel.  Now such nerd worthy names as Katie Wilson and Lisa Foiles have joined the ranks of my YouTube subscriptions. 

And speaking of Geek and Sundry…

TableTop

Wil Wheaton’s YouTube show about tabletop gaming has led to a number of purchase from Hastings, Barnes and Nobles, and Amazon, and a very long Amazon Wishlist to boot.  I have now watched every episode of the show and plan on continuing into the future.  Anyone needing birthday or Christmas gift ideas for me should check out the show, I want basically everything they’ve played plus more…Settlers of Catan and Munchkin are my top two wants.  I have bought both Zombie Dices and Star Munchkin and have played them both dozens of times already. 

Dungeons and Dragons

Also, brought on by TableTop, D&D is the quid-essential tabletop game.  Though a nerd/geek classic, I never played it largely due to its bad rap as a “satanic” game that leads to murder, witchcraft, and suicide, rumors that in recent years have largely faded way. 

I’ve recently purchased the basic set, the “Red Box,” and have downloaded a couple of adventures/modules off the internet.  My wife and I have both played the solo adventure from the Red Box and have a few friends – all also D&D virgins – lined up for our first campaign. 

World of Warcraft

Talking about (tabletop) gaming naturally lead to talking about video gaming.  Several of my friends play WOW, but it was one of my wife’s coworkers who, calling me out on not playing, got me too start.  I’m not sure what I think of the game, it isn’t the funnest thing I’ve ever played but it is good, mindless entertainment.  I downloaded the free version and my wife upped me to the “battlechest” – the basic game and first two expansions. 

Hot Nerds/Geeks

Ok, I’ve always been obsessed with hot girls, and geekiness is hot.  But this summer I’ve discovered some truly hot nerds.   ScreenTeam’s Angie Griffin, Lisa Foiles, Katie Wilson, Katrina “ActionFlickChick” Hill.  Yet, one more reason I’ve become a YouTube junky. 

Twitter

Is Twitter still nerdy? I’m not sure, but I’m more into twitter than I ever was facebook, probably because facebook is all funny cat pics (funny since YouTube is largely funny cat videos). 

Game of Thrones

This is another one of those, I’m not sures.  We rented the first two episodes and now I want to see the rest of the first season, but I’m not sure I like it.  I haven’t finished watching it yet so we’ll see.  I’ll let you know. 

The Summer of Valiant

Yes, I know, I said I was already into comics, but it had been months since I picked up a new issue before this came out.  It was my dad who started getting Valiant, both the classic 90s version and this new one.  I’m also picking up Hit Girl and Before Watchmen but so far I’m not impressed with either of them. 

So, last time I ended up with about 20 on my top ten list, so to balance out the universe I looks like I’m going to stop at 9.  I’d like to say this was intentional symmetry on my part but I’m just hard up to think of a 10^th entry.  Oh well and Say “La V.”

Now, I wanna see your nerd obsessions both old and new (or even your take on the nerd and geek definitions).  Let me know in the comments below or on my twitter page @nerdisnewcool. 

Nerd Is the New Cool, signing off.

Top Ten Cancelled Too Soon TV Shows

On her YouTube vlog, Katie Wilson recently posted a video asking her fans what their favorite cancelled too soon TV show was. That got me thinking...there have been a lot of great TV shows, especially genre shows (Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror) that have been either too smart or too original for network TV and been cancelled early on. Some classic examples like Firefly and Crusade where cancelled before the first episode ever even aired.

Here is my list of the Ten Greatest Cancelled Too Soon TV Shows

Honorable Mentions: I was very tempted to include Quantum Leap on this list but its ending was just a little too satisfactory for me (my dad on the other hand *hates* the ending).  I also originally included Aaron Sorkin’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip but took it off deciding it didn’t fit with the overall theme of the rest of the list – Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror genre shows. 

10. The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. (1993-1994; 1 Season/27 Episodes) - This sci-fi/western/comedy had more inaccuracies than Xena and King Arthur combined, but that was a large part of the appeal.  The wronger it got; the cooler it was.  Bounty hunter Brisco, played by the incomparable Bruce Campbell, along with his colorful ensemble of allies – including an Elvis impersonating sheriff, a mad scientist, and a horse who puts Lassie to shame when it comes to saving the day – went up against  super-powered villains, time travelling criminals, desert pirates, and a real Psycho (in a Hitchcock inspired episode).  The first season wrapped up most of the plotlines and came to an acceptable conclusion – though a couple of series regulars were absent from the finale – but more seasons were planned and unfortunately never came to light. 

9. Crusade (1999; less than 1 Season/13 Episodes) – Ok, so Crusade kinda sucked… a lot.  But it shouldn’t have.  The followup to Babylon 5 – one of, if not the, best science fiction shows of all time – should have been great.  And it might have been, but repeated interference from the network forced changes and disrupted the storyline, which was then further hurt by the show being aired out of order.  Even with the great J. Michael Straczynski at the helm, Crusade never stood a chance. 

8.  Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008-2009; 2 Seasons/31 Episodes) – Not as good as the first two films, on par with the third, and way better than the fourth.  I could have lived with it cancelling had the ending not been a cliff hanger.  A three hour movie or mini-series could successfully wrap it up for me. 

7.  Surface (2005-2006; 1 Season/15 Episodes) – Admittedly, Surface didn’t start very strong.  But by the season finale, it had managed to evolve into an evoking and engaging series with a compelling mystery at its center.  In my opinion, it had moved from cheap imitation of Lost to a superior entertainment.    Invasion another show from the same time suffered the same cycle as Surface. 

6.  American Gothic (1995-1996; 1 Season/22 Episodes) – It’s hard to write this one because unlike the rest of the series on this list I haven’t seen an episode in the 16 years since it went off the air.  A supernatural detective story of sorts, American Gothic had the small town mythos that has worked so well with more recent shows like Haven.  The local sheriff, played by Crusade’s Gary Cole, making his second appearance on the list, may have been the Devil, but at the very least he was a powerful and charismatic evil entity.  The show also featured Sling Blade’s Lucas Black, and Honorable Mention Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip’s Sarah Paulson. 

5.  Carnivàle (2003-2005; 2 Seasons/24 Episodes) – The first book ended, but a lot wasn’t answered and a lot was left hanging is … dead? Is …? And for that matter is …?  It was what shows like Lost, Tru Blood, and Game of Thrones struggle to be – and usually successes at – but it got there first…a mythos filled television novel.  Not the best show on this list, but probably the one I most want to get brought back. 

4. Heroes (2006-2011; 4 Seasons/78 Episodes) – Aw…if only they’d brought it back for a third season…oh what could have been.  But seriously, after a couple of week seasons, Heroes left us on a compelling cliffhanger.  It made a few mistakes – as far back as the second season things were going astray – but it managed to be one of the smartest and most engaging Super-Hero shows of all time.  Excluding cartoons, it is probably second only to Lois and Clark as the best Super-Hero series ever. 

3.  Gargoyles (1994-1997; 3 Seasons/78 Episodes) – One of my all-time favorite shows of all-time.  Killed twice.  One of many reasons Disney sucks.  The Avengers movie almost makes up for cancelling Gargoyles but not quiet.  This kids show had almost as much mythos as Carnivàle and Lost and sometimes executed it better than the latter.  Demona is still one of my favorite Super-Villains…

2. Tie – Firefly (2002; less than 1 Season/14 Episodes) and Dollhouse (2009-2010; 2 Seasons/26 Episodes) – Joss Whedon is known for complex storytelling, witty dialog, quirky ensemble casts, and network interference.  Both of these shows exemplify those qualities – especially the last one.  Both shows were incredible, smart, funny and dramatic, TV.  Both were destroyed by Fox; the first quiet possibly intentionally.  Firefly’s follow-up movie Serenity concluded the show and answered the unanswered questions about River Tam, but the adventures of Mal and Serenity’s crew were far from completed and could have lasted for years if allowed.  Dollhouse suffered the same fate, forced into a too quick conclusion though it lasted a bit longer first.  Echo’s story was pushed into a conclusion but it was far from the natural fluid ending one would expect from the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dr. Horrible.  Fox should be ashamed of itself, it let the Simpsons go for years after it stopped being any good but killed these two shows in their prime. 

1. Farscape (1999-2003, 2004; 4 Seasons/Episodes and a Mini-Series/2 Episodes) – Farscape was one of those shows that knew exactly what it was, but no one glancing at it understood it.  A quick look while flipping through the channels would not stop many viewers – the show featured puppets as main characters! – and its smart writing and incredible storyline were lost to many.  Killed way before its time, the show ended on a cliffhanger (the apparent death of two main characters followed by the dread words To Be Continued).  The Sci-Fi channel brought the show back a year later for a 2 episode mini-series to wrap up loose ends but condensing what should have been a 22 episode season into four hours took a toll on the finale.   The mini might have concluded the show, but a single additional season might have more successfully brought it to a close. 


Well, that wraps this countdown up, but I know I missed a ton of great shows.  Just in the course of writing this I had to kick Due South and Time Trax out to make room for American Gothic and Carnivàle, once I thought of them. 

Feel free to let me know in the comments or on my twitter page @nerdisnewcool what shows you think should have made the list. 

Check out Random Thoughts With Katie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCEhyP9f-IA&feature=g-u-u.  Give her a like and subscribe…she’s a true treasure of the nerd community.

Nerd Is the New Cool, signing off