Holiday Gift Guide: Movies & TV

Vance: For the Cinephile in your life

Filmstruck (www.filmstruck.com)

Imagine you're sitting at home some night. Maybe it's cold out, or hot out, or raining. The video store's closed, and has been since 2007, but you definitely have a WiFi connection and don't feel like binge-watching that must-see show that everybody's always making you feel guilty about not seeing. What you really want to do is watch a silent comedy. Or a French movie about high society, or about low society, or a future, animated society. Or something Orson Welles made. Or, hell, just pretty much anything in black-and-white. That's where Filmstruck comes in. A partnership with Turner Classic Movies and the Criterion Collection, Filmstruck has a rotating crop of classic and contemporary films that include curated lists grouped around directors (such as Early Bogdanovich, or Agnes Varda, or Auteurs in Space), or regions (such as Films of the Diaspora, or Life in Tel Aviv, or Films of the French Occupation), or themes (about organized labor, or punk, or poverty), as well as your regular browse functions that allow you to search library titles. Not everything is highbrow fare, though. They recently featured the films of Mario Bava and Val Lewton, recently did a series on Roger Corman (our interview), and are still streaming one of my favorite kaiju trainwrecks, The X from Outer Space (review). It's kind of a cinephile's playground, and costs less than Hulu's ad-free service. 

Dean: For the binge-watcher in your life

I think I watched more TV this year than I have in any before, so I have a few suggestions:

Westworld is probably the best show I have ever seen. I adore it start to finish, and I know (for once) I'm not alone in that assessment. In an era of binge-watching simply because we can, Westworld demands it, every episode making you scream for the next one - and when it's all done, you have to go back and watch it again. And again. ($39.99, Amazon).

American Gods is nearly as good, and we're not going to talk about the fact that season one is shaping up to be a mess with the showrunners leaving. But season one is great! Fans of scifi/fantasy/surrealism will adore this. ($24.96, Amazon)

Game of Thrones: I AM, however, fairly alone in not liking Game of Thrones. But lots of people do, and buying people what they like is what gifts are about, right? And if you're going to get them this, you may as well go all out and get the Night King (that's his name, right? Or is that WoW?) bust.  ($149.99, Amazon)


Brian: Get Out - Jordan Peele (director)

Despite what the Golden Globes may classify it as, Get Out is not a comedy. It's a brilliant horror movie that achieves more tension and terror with human beings than with gallons of blood and masked psychopaths. The premise is simple: Chris Washington is a black man who is going to meet his white girlfriend's parents for the first time. It's a movie designed to make you feel uncomfortable, and it does so with incredible success and wit. Though it has a few very good laughs in it, the point isn't to entertain you so much as make you feel what Chris feels, and he doesn't have a fun time.

The G: Robocop (Criterion Edition)

Many action films in the '80s simultaneously embodied and critiqued Reagan-era notions of macho nationalism and money-makes-right, but none quite as well as Paul Verhoeven's masterpiece of action cinema. You can watch it as a straight-forward action flick about a good job with robotic powers cleaning up a dirty city, or you can watch it as a satirical take on privatized security and corporate greed. Because it's both! And in the era of Blackwater, private prisons and mass automation, Robocop is as relevant as ever. Plus Criterion editions come with all sorts of goodies.


Sean: Gintama: the live-action version

Gintama continues to be an amazing parody of all things anime/history/etc., and the usual well-placed fears about live-action adaptations of this sort of brilliance were, I am happy to report, actually misplaced in this case! So for the lovers of quirky movies around you, take a chance on Gintama! But then again, even the best live-action version can't measure up to the original anime, so maybe just play it safe and get the animated Gintama film instead...


Limitless: the TV series

I know what you're thinking: why watch a TV series based on only a pretty good movie? I'll tell you why: because of the brilliant parody said series did of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, that's why! It was a shot-for-shot remake at times! So kill two birds with one stone: give the TV-phile an entertaining show and an adrenaline burst of nostalgia for the 80s!

Holiday Gift Guide: Gadgets, Electronics, and Apps

It's that time of year again, where we struggle to buy the perfect gift for that special [fill in the blank] in your life. This year, the Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together crew is teaming up to bring you their favorite books, toys, entertainment, and gadgets, etc. to help make the process easier.

Stop by each day this week to see our suggestions.

Today...Gadgets, Electronics, and Apps!

The G: "For the solitaire lover in your life"

Card Crawl 

For me to play a game on my phone, it needs to essentially be some form of solitaire--the kind of thing you can play in 5-10 minute sessions, doesn't require much concentration and, as such, lends itself to endless replay while waiting for person X to arrive or event Y to start. But I also want something more than just solitaire, and that's exactly what Card Crawl provides. It's fantasy-based with addictive gameplay and a reward system that lets you trade in points (accrued by success and not by in-app purchases) for special cards. And the game itself is both simple and deep. Basically, there are five kinds of cards: monsters, which hurt you; swords and shields, which hurt monsters; potions, which heal you; coins, which give you points; and special cards, which can do all sorts of fun things. The trick is trading in as many swords, shields and potions as possible for coins, but so many that you can't survive a hand full of monsters. It's a lot of fun. And free! (Available for iOS and Android.)

Tia: "For the not really a morning person in your life"

Philips Wake-Up Light with Sunrise Simulation

Chances are you've stayed up way too late reading or playing video games (or maybe even doing something responsible like homework or caring for a child) and have struggled to get out of bed the next morning, hitting the snooze button numerous times. Or, perhaps you're one of the unfortunate souls that must rise in the dark, before the sun has reared it's beautiful head. Personally, I used to have 6 alarms set on my phone in various increments and would often sleep through many of them and then awake startled at one of the awful sounds. Welp, that dragon has officially been slayed and my magic weapon is the Phillips Wake Up Light. It's not a miracle worker mind you, but I no longer need alarms on my phone and I now often awake before the soft subtle beep that this golden egg exudes. The reason is the sunrise simulation the device offers. Around half an hour before the alarm is set to go off, the Wake Up Light starts gradually brightening to prepare your body for waking up the natural way (triggering your circadian rhythm), and by the time the beep sounds you are already almost fully awake. Now, I don't wake up singing and am still tired in the morning, but it is no longer the vicious battle of slapping my hand around my night stand to silence whatever evil demon is screaming in my ear. There are many different models to choose from but I just went with the bottom of the barrel and it was the best money I spent in a really long time. I purchased this as a gift for my brother this year (who also inherited the 10 phone alarm gene) and I recommend you get one for yourself and any other non-morning person in your life.


Brian: "for the too-connected homeowner in your life"

Gogogate2 by Gogogate

I got a Gogogate 2 to solve a dumb problem, but it turned out to be really neat. It allows you to control and monitor your garage door (among other types of outdoor gates) via your smartphone. It connects directly to your garage door opener and wifi network. With some setup, you connect it to an app on your smartphone, slap a sensor on your garage door, and now you can see on your smartphone whether it's open or close, and then open or close it. Big deal, but you can also allow remote access (using strong passwords, obvs), and now you can check on your garage door, open, or close it from your smartphone anywhere. No more sharing your garage door code with family or friends, you can just open and close it for them from your phone! It can be configured to send you alerts when your garage door is open for more than 10 minutes, or whenever it opens or closes. You can also do neat (dumb) things like tie it in a roundabout way to an Amazon Echo and now you can open and close your garage door using just your voice! I wouldn't necessarily call this a "fun" device, but it does useful things and I never fail to enjoy opening my garage door from a block away with my phone.


Joe: "For lovers of calm and beautiful games"

Monument Valley

After recommending Prune last year, I'd like to recommend another mobile game. Originally released in 2014, Monument Valley is a beautiful and quiet game filled with puzzles featuring optical illusions and manipulation for the player to find their way through the paths blocked by weirdly creepy crow people. Monument Valley is a touch on the short side and it's not the most difficult of games, but it is a fun and calming piece of art.

Holiday Gift Guide: Books and Comics

Welcome to our annual Holiday Gift Guide where the flock takes a break from talking about all the awesome and not so awesome things to, well, talk about some more of the awesome things that you might want to consider for your Holiday shopping this year. Today we'll talk about books and comics, but throughout the week you'll have any number of things to consider (games, apps, movies, and more). 

And, as you can see from the first item on this list, you still can't avoid hearing about Hamilton. I'm not sorry.


Joe: for the Hamilton obsessed in your life

Hamilton: The Revolution

by Jeremy McCarter and Lin Manuel-Miranda

I'm not sure there is anything so ingrained in nerd culture (for whatever that means today) as Hamilton. It's a musical, it's a soundtrack that has become the soundtrack of our lives, there's a star studded mixtape out now, and there's also this book. It is stunningly good. Hamilton: The Revolution is two things. First, it is a behind the scenes making of the show from inspiration all the way through making it big on Broadway and turning into the phenomenon it became. The second part of the book, and just as good is  Lin-Manuel Miranda annotated his lyrics. He writes about some of the things he was trying to accomplish, hip hop references, and more. My only wish is that Miranda would have gone full on genius annotating every line and small detail of the show - but that's a small and selfish quibble. This is a can't miss book for fans of the show and also for those still trying to figure out what's going on with this Hamilton thing.


The G: For the Vikings fan in your life

The Long Ships (New York Review Books Classics)

by Frans G. Bengtsson (trans. Michael Meyer)

I have a love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with History Channel's series Vikings, namely because it isn't nearly as historical as I want it to be. But I do appreciate that it is making more people interested in actual Viking history and culture. Now, granted--The Long Ships is neither history nor Saga, but it's a gateway to reading the Sagas, as it captures their feel, relativistic worldview and dark humor quite well. Only, The Long Ships also gives you modern prose with narrative structure. In other words, this is the closest you're going to get to the Sagas without actually reading the Sagas. And you should really read the Sagas, but The Long Ships is a good way to see if you're up for that. Plus it's just a very good story, told well.


Tia: For the Harry Potter Fan in your life

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: The Illustrated Edition (Harry Potter, Book 2)

by J.K. Rowling and Jim Kay (Illustrator)

The Harry Potter Illustrated series is a must have for any Harry Potter fan. The Chamber of Secrets doesn't feel quite as heavily illustrated as the first in the series, probably because the text is a bit longer, but that doesn't detract from the magnitude of the beauty of the book. You can catch a preview of some of the illustrations from Book 2 on Pottermore. The books themselves are almost coffee-table size, the construction is sturdy and the pages are heavy and glossed. The plan is to release one illustrated book per year, starting last year, so it is not too late to make this a holiday giving tradition.


Vance: for lover of the best science fiction has to offer

The Big Book of Science Fiction

by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (editors)

I kid you not, the introduction alone is worth the price of this book. Written by the editors, the intro lays out the entire evolution of science fiction, from Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells through today. But it doesn't just tell the story of Western science fiction, which is almost exclusively what I'm familiar with, it also explores how sci-fi developed in other parts of the world, too, often cut off from the Western tradition, and how it matured in response to the social conditions present in those countries and cultures. The stories collected in the book, collected methodically and purposefully, then demonstrate that history and evolution. I love vintage sci-fi -- in my gift guide entry last year, I highlighted the Fantagraphics EC Comics collections, and I have been known to wander into my local used books shop and buy sci-fi anthologies from the 50s and 60s pretty much at random. In most of those cases and with the EC collections, there are standout gems, and a bunch of junk that gets skipped, or after I scratch the pulp sci-fi or horror itch, I put the books aside until next time. But this is not to be the fate of The Big Book of Science Fiction. It's long, and I have not made my way through it fully yet, but the variety and consistently stellar (see that?) quality of the stories really do set this apart as, in my mind, *the* premier anthology of short science fiction. A must-have.



Mike: For the nostalgic comic book lover in your life

Paper Girls Volume 1

by Brian K. Vaughan

As I contemplate what an amazing year of comics it has been, I struggled to find one book that was truly a must read.  In my opinion, a lot of the titles that have come out this year are not to be missed, but as I pondered my stack of comics I reached the conclusion that that one title in 2016 was Paper Girls.  Brian K. Vaughan is no stranger to writing amazing books (Saga, Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina) and Paper Girls is as good as any of them.  In a similar vein to Stranger Things, Paper Girls had an 80's nostalgia to it that was expertly crafted.  It didn't feel forced, and reminded me of The Goonies, Stand By Me, and others.  It brings me visions of riding my bike around the neighborhood ready for anything the world could throw at me.  In the case of the characters in this title, the paper girls are confronted with mysterious aliens and mayhem and never miss a beat.  Featuring a cast of strong female characters, Paper Girls is just the title for someone on your list looking for a bit of nostalgia and fun.


Shana: for the lover of the best short fiction being written today

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

by Ken Liu

In Ken Liu's first short story collection, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, the reader is met with some of Ken's most awarded and award-nominated short stories with one never before published, 15 in all. This speculative fiction collection is one of the most moving and awe-inspiring I've ever read with many of the stories centering around themes such as family, identity, and politics. Liu's ability to strike the reader to the core with his poetic prose is unparalleled and any recipient of this collection will be rewarded with a gut-punch of a read.


POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Writer / Editor at Adventures in Reading since 2004. Nerds of a Feather contributor since 2015, editor since 2016. Minnesotan.  

Thursday Morning Superhero

With the holiday season rapidly approaching, I thought I would open this week's post with an abbreviated gift guide.  Without further ado:

For the DC Fan:
If you have a DC fan you are shopping for, I would highly recommend The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland.  It is referred to as one of the best Joker stories ever told and is something that any DC fan should read.

For the Marvel Fan:
If you have read this column before, you know that I am a big Captain America fan.  What brought me into the fold was the work of Ed Brubaker.  If you have a Marvel fan on your list look no further than the Captain America Omnibus.  Packed with the first 25 issues of his run, it includes the Winter Soldier, which was way better than the movie (which I quite liked!).  Although as of this posting I see that it is out of print, so you can either pay big bucks for the omnibus or scoop the individual trades.


For the Indie Fan:
I catch some flack from my friends for liking "hipster comics", but there are some titles that are simply must reads.  If you have a quirky friend on your list, I highly recommend The Underwater Welder from Jeff Lemire or My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf.  Both are stunning and well worth your time.

Pick of the Week:
Birthright #12 - Oh how I want to drop a spoiler in this recap.  Joshua Williamson has been holding out on us and it isn't fair!  We learn more about the five mages that Mikey is tracking down, but we still don't know why or if they are good or bad.  Mikey and Brennan are close to tracking down one of the mages, Sameal, but we learn that he may not be the best one to pursue.  Meanwhile, the feds are upping their play to track down Mikey and Brennan, resorting to force to attempt to use their parents to assist them.  One of my favorite aspects of this book is the relationship between Brennan and Mikey.  Brennan wants to trust his brother, but has a healthy dose of skepticism that keeps Mikey on his toes.

The Rest:

The Violent #1 - Holy depressing debut Batman!  This debut issue from Ed Birsson, Adam Gorham, and Michael Garland is very upsetting, but very compelling.  Mason has just been released from jail, and is adjusting to life with his wife and toddler.  His wife wants nothing but for them to go on the straight and narrow, but the deck is stacked against them.  I found myself shouting at Mason throughout the comic with each bad decision he made.  As a dad, it was very easy to connect with his character and to want nothing but for him to have a meaningful relationship with his child.  This is going to be a rough ride, but it appears to be worth it.


The Walking Dead #149 - I had high hopes given the cover and the title "Devil on your Soldier'.  It didn't quite live up to expectations, but Negan is able to exert some influence on Rick and things are about to become a lot less peaceful.  Something tells me that Negan may not be the best person to take advice from.  Things are still moving at a slow pace, but this surely is the calm before the storm.  Right?

Batman #47 - I am still having a hard time with the way things are in Gotham, but it sounds like Scott Snyder is ready to allow Bruce to wear the cowl again soon.  Not that Jim Gordon has been a bad Batman, but it just doesn't feel right.  Mr. Bloom continues to be one of the best villains I have seen in Gotham, but I am ready for a return to normal.  While the twist at the end was a doozy, it makes me worry that Gordon will remain as the Batman for longer than I would prefer.






 POSTED BY MIKE N. aka Victor Domashev -- comic guy, proudly raising nerdy kids, and Nerds of a Feather contributor since 2012.  

Holiday Gift Guide (for Girls?) - Tia and Vance

Here at Nerds of a Feather, we're big believers in women in the sciences and the science fictions. And since I have three daughters, the oldest of whom is actively building up her nerd cred more and more, I pitched co-contributor Tia the idea of doing a gift guide for girls that goes in a totally different direction than your mainstream pink-and-princesses type guides we all see everywhere this time of year. The gifts that follow, then, are not really gender-specific, but we hope that if you're shopping for a special kid with an interest in nerdy things, regardless of their chromosomes, these will give you some ideas.

Gift Guide - Vance

I bestow upon you earned knowledge. Each of the gifts below has been kid-tested in my own home, so I've seen these things in action in grubby little kid paws, and pronounce them winners.

Board Games

The two most popular games in my house this year have been Labyrinth and King of Tokyo. Labyrinth is a board game made up of moving tiles that you can shift on your turn in order to create a path to the next piece of treasure you must collect. It's fun, and a wonderful exercise in spatial reasoning. In King of Tokyo, you are a monster battling other monsters for control of Tokyo. What's not to love?
Labyrinth from Amazon King of Tokyo at Amazon

Batman

I loved the 1960s Batman TV series when I was a kid, but in a new world that includes sprawling effects spectacles like The Avengers, I wasn't sure how the campy antics of Adam West and Burt Ward would go over. I needn't have worried. All three girls come from wherever they are in the house to dance when they hear the theme song begin, and all those "Pow"s "Biff"s and "Zowie"s have been tremendous fun for somebody who just learned to read. Now the complete series is available on disc for the first time, and even comes packaged with a snazzy die-cast Batmobile.
Amazon

Monster Feet

My eldest daughter loves monsters and Godzilla. Somebody gave her some pink monster-feet house shoes, which are fine, but she and I both prefer the Godzilla feet slippers she has. Seeing a little kid walk around the house in these things is simply the best. It's the best.
Amazon


Gift Guide - Tia

Dealing with Dragons: Book One of the Enchanted Forrest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede

This was my all time favorite book growing up. It’s about an improper princess named Cimorene, who doesn’t behave as a princess ought to. She tries to learn fencing and cleaning and magic and Latin…all subjects that are denied to princesses. But uncovering her parents’ plan to force her into an arranged marriage is the last straw and Cimorene skips town, eventually finding herself in the company of some dragons. She volunteers to be the dragons’ “captive,” a position she thoroughly enjoys, despite all the annoying rescue attempts by knights in shining armor.

I think I loved this book so much because it was different than all the other princess stories. I was condemned to Catholic school as I kid, so I could fully relate to being expected to act a certain way and not being able to learn anything cool. I can’t speak for the trilogy as a whole, because I never even knew there was more than one book until recently, but Dealing with Dragons is a story that will live in a little girl’s heart forever (well mine at least).
Amazon.



Harry Potter Gryffindor Jersey

This is the all time most awesome Harry Potter shirt EVER! When I finally made it to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter this summer, I was so overwhelmed with nerdiness I couldn’t handle it. Not to mention, the Diagon Alley expansion was finished but not open to the public yet, so I had to deal with that crushing blow at the same time. Talk about mixed feelings. I’m not going to lie, I did contemplate jumping the fence. There was only one guard on duty and I know I could have outrun him. But anyway, I saw so many little folks rocking this top around Orlando and it was fantastic. It’s not your typical flimsy T-Shirt, it has a little more substance to it and even some embroidery. I opted not to buy myself one while I was there and purchased a wand instead, a decision I regret. At a recent Harry Potter festival in Philadelphia I saw a mother-daughter duo sporting these matching HP jerseys and it was to die for. Universal Studios.

National Geographic Archaeology Kit: Pyramid Dig

Lets face it. Archaeology is cool, mythology is cool, and digging in the dirt is really, really cool. I worked as an archeologist for a time and was the only girl on the field crew (i.e., dirt diggers). All the other girls at the company worked in either administration or as researchers. If you ask me, we need more girls in the dirt digging department. This Ancient Egypt archaeology set looks like so much fun, and may be just the type of thing to get more of today’s youth interested in history and digging. It comes with a little chisel, brush, hammer, mummy, and sarcophagus. It even has directions on how to mummify an apple! Be aware though, this kit contains choking hazards, so make sure that the recipient of this gift isn’t one to eat non-food items.  Amazon.  

(Editor's note: Tia and I had overlapping gift recommendations, although mine involved digging up dinosaur bones, not ancient civilizations. Both are super cool. Here's the T-Rex skeleton dig we have here. - V)

2013 Nerd Gift Guide - Adam

Bad Religion's 'Christmas Songs'

Epitaph Records (available to buy)

I really don't need to discuss anything about this except to ask you to conjure up in your minds the idea of Bad Religion doing 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman' and 'Little Drummer Boy' without changing their sound one jot.

Done it?

Now you're buying it. 

Aren't you? 

Ye-ssssss, good puppets....

Xmas gold dust.

I'll be lopping this bad boy all week whilst stuffing my face with chocolate. That's good Yorkshire chocolate. Like Terry's Chocolate Orange, which has to be smashed open. How Jesusy is THAT? And their ad slogan is "It's not Terry's. It's mine". Only the great Creator could have come up with that. Praise be.

If any room left I'll maybe scoff a little Green and Blacks. And Lindt. But none of that nasty, doesn't melt properly Herseys rubbish. But maybe some Oreos. Though that's not really chocolate in the strict sense. Plus, they don't have Santa-shaped Oreos. Or Snowman Oreos. 

Wait, do they? 

If they do - on the list.

So it's basically a thrash ska punk shouty carols album and mythical Oreos from me. And maybe an xbox one please. Thanks.

Have happy, nerdy holidays my fellow geeks and freaks!

The true spirit of Christmas...

2013 Nerd Gift Guide - The G

Some of us nerds of a feather have distinct specialties, but I'm the jack of all trades. So it should come as no surprise that I've cobbled together an eclectic array of gift ideas for that special nerdy someone or someones in your life. Follow the links to purchase...

For Music Lovers: Black Metal by Dayal Patterson [Buy the book or download for Kindle.]

If you like black metal as much as I do, and chances are you do not, then you won't want to miss this. I mean, where else can you read the true stories of everyone from Necrobutcher to Necrocock? This ain't no tabloidy bullshit like Lords of Chaos--this is a real history of the "most evil" form of music ever made, in all its absurd glory. Though full of unintentional comedy, Black Metal is written by someone with both an appreciation for both the music's value and full understanding of how ridiculous it can be. This is easily the best music book I've read since England's Dreaming.

For Fantasy/Gaming Enthusiasts: Lords of Waterdeep, a D&D themed board game [Buy the game and the expansion.]

Do you know someone who waxes nostalgic about his/her days as a Dungeon Master, but doesn't have the time or inclination to plan/execute a dungeon drawl? How about that friend who loves both Settlers of Catan and Game of Thrones? Well, you're in luck, because Lords of Waterdeep promises the nerdy goodness of AD&D wrapped in the streamlined package of a European-style board game!

For "Your Kids": Collectible Darth Vader Taking Plus Toy Figure [Buy this awesomenes.]

Sure your kid asked for Rescue Bots/Sophia the First/a pony, but you know what's best for them, right? And this isn't just a gift--it's a hyperspace ticket to a lifetime of awesomeness! And who cares if it ends up in your room instead of theirs? You're just keeping it in good condition for them! They'll definitely appreciate that when they're older. No question.