Geek poetry contest winners!
The results are in!
We sponsored a geek poetry contest with GeekMom.com and here are the winning poems.
Readers of Geek Mom were asked to submit a poem in any form of their choosing (haiku, rap, free verse, Klingon sonnet) on any geeky topic: Tolkien, Star Wars, Star Trek, gelatinous cubes, World of Warcraft war chants, hobbit drinking songs, odes to Harry Potter, ballads to honor Gary Gygax.
Sample winning haiku:
Samwise and Frodo:
You think they’re about to kiss,
But they never do.
--Natalie Jones
Poems that somehow managed to work in the name "Ethan Gilsdorf" (which, according to legend, is either Elvish or Elvis) were hard to resist. Winners got autographed copies of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms.
Hope you enjoy! The rest of the bards' fabulous winning works can be read here.
You can also read the other non-winning but nonetheless worthy entries here
Geek pride comes to Providence
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WRNI) - For role players, gamers and sci-fi fans alike, the term geek doesn't have the same sting it used to. In fact, many are now embracing that very term. You can include authors Ethan Gilsdorf and Tony Pacitti on that list. They'll both be panelists tonight in Providence for R2-D20, and Evening of Sci-Fi Fandom and Fantasy Gaming Geekery. WRNI's Elisabeth Harrison spoke to the two authors about the event.
Roll for damage (extra bases)!
In an interesting piece in the NY Times about APBA, a board and dice baseball game is, if not going strong, at least holding its own against video and fantasy league versions of sports games. Like all great subcultures, it's got a devoted following; a recent tournament attracted 76 players. According to the article, "Video games have become increasingly sophisticated, and fantasy sports leagues have surged in popularity, but APBA, like its rival Strat-O-Matic, has stuck to the basic format that made it successful."
APBA, which once stood for "American Professional Baseball Association," is about as old-school as it gets: dice, cards, and dice shakers. And what's most interesting is this geeky twist on who plays--- yes, folks who self-identify as "nerds" and "geeks," lovers of statistics "in statistics-related careers like accounting, teaching math, tax law and financial advising." Nerdy sports nuts --- and as we know, sports is celebrated in our culture. Conjuring magic spells, not so much.Of course, with APBA, no dungeons or dragons are required --- just the fantasy of imagining a winning team (or playing center field for one). An acceptable fantasy for most boys, men (and girls and women, too).
The article points to an interesting turn, too. Brian Wells, the 16 year old kid who has won the tournament a couple times, has been "begrudgingly" accepted by the men. A kid's game is co-opted by adults who then let the kid back in as a member of their tribe.
But also this point -- can an old-school board game (or for that matter, a miniature soldier wargame) capture the imagination of kids when most are used to the spoon-fed action and eye-candy of XBox and Playstation? It's an issue I discuss in Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, specifically whether a wargame like Chainmail can entrance a 12 year old boy, or whether he's start craving Warcraft after the first hour of snail's pace action.
In the Times article, the kid says that his friends stay home with video games. “They don’t make fun of me,” Wells said. “But they don’t want to get into it. Because some of my friends just don’t have the attention span for all of this.”
wizard rock radio!
If you need your fix of Harry Potter-themed "wizard rock," look no further.... thanks to the coolness over at Paste magazine.
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
Harry and the Potters in a cave
If you happen to be in the Boston area, come help celebrate the July 15 release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with "A FREE SHOW in a CAVE!" Well, Harry and the Potters say, "Actually, not a cave, but a chasm. CLOSE ENOUGH! How cool is that? You gotta come!" This is an unplugged concert/hike/sing-a-long in a place called Purgatory Chasm (which, coincidentally, I wrote about ages ago for the Boston Globe). Anyway, their event info is here:
07.14.09 | Sutton, MA | Purgatory Chasm | ALL AGES | 8:15pm | FREE!!! | Facebook
Here’s the plan: Meet at 8:15pm in the parking lot of Purgatory Chasm. Bring a flashlight! At 8:30, we will hike up into the chasm (it is a very short hike - <10min). Once we're in the chasm, Harry and the Potters will play a bunch of unamplified songs. Sing-alongs galore! Bring your voice! After we've done a bunch of singing and stuff, we will go to the movies together! We're planning on attending the 12:05am screening of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at the Blackstone Valley 14 in Millbury, MA which is only about 10 minutes from the Chasm. Follow this link to buy tickets to the 12:05am screening!
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
Harry and Potters video
here's the direct link, in case you missed it
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks