So, you better done your Geek duty and saw Machete over the weekend. Good! Still hungry for more sloppy love? Even better… My man Dan Halsted with Grindhouse Film Fest has you taken care of:
Tuesday night at the Hollywood Theatre, the Grindhouse Film Festival pulls two 35mm prints out of the archive for a Grindhouse Double Feature! First up, one of the greatest kung fu movies of all time: FIST OF THE WHITE LOTUS (at 7pm). Then, the horror/kung fu collision SEVEN BROTHERS MEET DRACULA (at 9pm).
FIST OF THE WHITE LOTUS (1980) Gordon Liu is out to avenge the destruction of the Shaolin Temple! But he’s up against an incarnation of the greatest villain in martial arts movie history: the unstoppable white eyebrowed Pai Mei (Gordon Liu played another incarnation of Pai Mei in KILL BILL). Lo Lieh plays the villain here, and he’s at his trash-talking, beard-stroking, kung fu annihilating best. He’ll even fight while he’s naked. But watch out for his kung fu crotch! The opening credit sequence alone is worth the price of admission, and the fight scenes are choreographed by kung fu master Lau Kar Leung (director of 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN).
SEVEN BROTHERS MEET DRACULA (aka LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES) (1974) Horror experts Hammer Studios hooked up with martial arts masters Shaw Brothers for this kung fu horror spectacular! A vampire hunter (Peter Cushing) joins forces with a martial arts master (David Chiang) in search of the legendary Seven Golden Vampires. The vampires have been raiding a remote Chinese village kidnapping sexy ladies, stripping them naked, and draining them of their blood. The vampires wear gold gangster medallions which hold the key to their supernatural power. Before long, martial arts weaponry is put into action, and we discover that a fatal fist works as well as a wooden stake when driven into the chest of a vampire!
Advance tickets and all information on the website: www.grindhousefilmfest.com Also, prepare yourself for TROLL 2 this Saturday night…
See kids, there was a time when video games didn’t need no stinking photo realistic graphics, evolving A.I., and Oscar quality voice-acting. No, there was a time when all one needed was a keyboard and a sense of adventure! If you miss those days of glory and “Look NORTH” quests, then you need to lock in September 9 at 7pm at Backspace. Why?
The Portland Commodore Users Group (PDXCUG.org) is proud to present a night with Jason Scott, a digital historian and archivist who specializes in early microcomputer history and dial-up bulletin board systems. He is the webmaster of textfiles.com, a collection of BBS-era text files that has been open to the public since 1998. In 2001, he began filming a documentary about BBSes called “BBS: The Documentary”, an 8-episode mini-series about BBSes spanning 25 years and totaling five and a half hours in length.
Now, Jason has a new film about text adventure games (think Zork), called “Get Lamp” (http://getlamp.com). He interviewed dozens of creators, players, and scholars about the experience and effect of text adventures in this documentary and is willing to share his adventure with you at this very special event, brought to you by the Portland Commodore Users Group. So pick up the coin, “Go North”, then “Go West” because we’ll be gathering at Backspace in old town Portland, Oregon (115 NW 5th Ave.) on Sept. 9, 2010 @7:00 p.m.
To this day, old school gamers talk about their early adventures in front of the green haze of their monitor delving deeper into an epic dungeon. After you watch this documentary, you will understand why sometimes all we want is a story and our imagination.
Geek Trivia Night continues it’s march of awesome as more and more epically nerdy folks join in on the fun. Tonight’s event is no different… After months of standing (or stumbling) in the back and shouting answers from behind mugs of grog, the pirates of PDX Yar take the trivia hosting reigns tonight. However, don’t worry if you think they’ve done nothing but fill their coffers with nautical and Johnny Depp themed questions. The scurvy dogs are PDX Yar are nothing if not honorable, humble, fair… Hm… fun-loving! Yea, that’s it. The folks are PDX Yar be a fun-loving group and they want to make sure everyone has a good time. With that in mind, I have it on very good authority the questions tonight be running the Geek gamut. (Sheesh, few sentance in and I’m already gettin’ all piratical with ma’ words).
It all starts tonight at 7pm at the Vendetta Bar on the corner of N Williams and NE Skidmore - No cost to enter, but you need to be 21 to play. So, gather your crew (or go rogue) and test your Geek might for glory, booze, and swag! And, don’t forget to keep checking the TFAW Event Page to keep in the loop with all pop culture events in the City of Roses!
I know it is a little strange to post about the pending Star Tours II ride. Then again, if a mid-30s geek doesn’t write with some minor snark when it comes to a decades old movie, then he doesn’t deserve to call himself a Geek!
Sure, the first Star Tours game was a tad cheesy. Getting stuck in a different Death Star attack run was dumb, but at least it had some series “pew-pew” going on. It had explosions, TIE Fighters, X-Wings, and a couple ‘o Star Destroyers. What the hell we getting this time? Oh no, look out… Um, Bespin Cloud Cars… Look, unless Lord Lando himself comes down from the sky and offers me a cool, tasty beverage; I don’t want to tour Bespin. Good thing the ride will then take us to Endor. Where we can slaughter them all and attempt a total retconning of the Jedi and force the ending of the movie to take place at Kashyyyk… Like all OCD Star Wars fans demand! Finally, off to Alderaan… Where you can bask in the rolling green hills, take in the cultural center of the galaxy, and chat it up with Jimmy Smits while taking a moonlight stroll… Hey, when did you guys get a second moon…
Geek Trivia keeps flying at full Warp Speed! Tonight at Vendetta at 7:00 p.m.–this time with special guest hosts Mary-Suzanne Lamkins and Myrrh Larsen of Incubator Lounge!
These Geek Trivia regulars are certain to have some VERY challenging questions–are you geeky enough to survive?
Come on down tonight and play in teams of up to five people. Fabulous prizes will be provided by Things From Another World! You must be 21 or older to play.
Hope to see you there!
*Love and/or honor may or may not happen… But you can still win epic prizes!
