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So picture this: it’s Thanksgiving, and you’re hanging with fam, maybe with some friends in town…your scraping up the last bits of your third helping helping of Tofurkey and kreplach stew…Uncle Teddy is telling same stupid story about the time his late Poostiff (it’s a poodle-mastiff mix) Pepper ruined Thanksgiving by hopping up on the counter and getting his face in all the food…but you can’t stop him from prattling on because you’ve had maybe one too many pumpkin old fashioneds and can’t think of anything better to interject with. WELL FEAR NOT! Nerd Nite ATL is here to help, with three mind-blowingly fascinating talks, chalk full of neat-o info that’ll make you the hit of your Thanksgiving party (and clam up Uncle Teddy, to boot).
It’s getting chilly outside, so take a step out of the cold and into a warm Nerd Nite ATL, Atlanta! This month we’re getting down on a Tuesday, with three great talks and one great music act to keep your spirits high as we shiver into the holiday season:
When: Tuesday, November 19th. Doors @ 7:30pm, Show @ 8:00pm sharp (arrive early!)
Where: Manuel’s Tavern, Poncey-Highlands, 602 N Highland Ave NE.
Cost: $5 cover.
WHO YOU’LL SEE, AND WHAT YOU’LL HEAR:
“Abstract Graffiti and Crisis in Modernism” by David Stedman, Living Walls Atlanta.
Graffiti comes from the underground, and often has low-brow connotations, but in the development of individual styles there is often a tendency towards increasing abstraction. In this talk, we will take a glance at these subcultural trends and compare them to the shift towards abstraction within modernist art. In combining both “high” and “low” culture, we’ll hopefully gain a new appreciation for both forms of expression and what they might tell us about society.
Bio: David is the Director of Education for LIVING WALLS, an Atlanta-based non-profit that seeks to promote, educate and change perspectives about the public space in our communities via street art. He is responsible for organizing lectures, leading tours, coordinating events with local schools, writing articles, and serving as a community liaison and public speaker. He is interested in street art because of its ability to change perceptions of space and time, as well as its potential as a critical practice.
“The Life and Death of Homemade America” by Kimberly Coburn, Homestead Atlanta
Take a quick tour through human history, tracing the trajectory from hunter-gatherer societies to cubicle-dwelling cityfolk. We’ll explore the evolution of relevant skillsets and their implications on class, culture and sustainability. How have we created a society full of people who can share pictures of their lunch instantly across the world, but couldn’t grow the food to produce it? How reliable are the systems in place that make our lives so magically convenient, and are we happier for all those conveniences? And what’s the deal with preppers, the zombie apocalypse and backyard chicken keeping? Jump down the rabbit hole of “authentic living” with us – we promise it’ll be a fun ride.
Bio: Kimberly is an Atlanta native who has taken immense pleasure in watching the city morph from the culture-deprived convention town of her youth to a thriving hub of all things good, green and delicious. She recently launched The Homestead Atlanta, an urban folk school marrying heritage skills with the sustainability approaches of tomorrow. Whether it’s through blacksmithing, fermentation, or permaculture, Kimberly considers creating with one’s hands the surest way to connect with the land, your community, and a personal sense of abundance and fulfillment in arguably uncertain times.
“It’s Alive! The Return of the Spookshow!” by Prof.Morte’.
Come along with Prof. Morte’ (Shane Morton), Atlanta’s Ghost Host With The Most as he takes you on a fun filled journey through the history of The Spookshow,the worlds oldest (?) and greatest form of entertainment! In over a decade of performing on stages and in old movie theaters across the nation,Prof. Morte’ has gathered up tall tales,short stories and creepy quotations that are sure to scare the YELL out of you! Hear how one man’s obsession became the country’s nightmare! Mwahahahaaaaa!!!
Bio: At the age of 3 Shane Morton saw King Kong (’33) and he has been a monster maker ever since. In over 2 decades as a professional in the horror business he has worked with such greats as Stan Winston studios and Rob Zombie. He has designed and built horror attractions and haunted houses all over the country, the Atlanta Zombie Apocalypse, being his biggest and best. You can see his recent film work in the indie, grindhouse hit, Dear God No! and on television with Adult Swim’s smash hit, Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell, where he was the Art Director of Hell and supplied special effects and make-ups.
And featuring live music by Atlanta’s own baby-faced dulcet-toned, Cleburne Workmaster
Tell your friends!
Be there and be square!
RSVP for Nerd Nite on Facebook…..HERE!
Weeeeee’re back, with the second installment of Nerd Nite ATL! For October, we’re bringing you a frightful evening of nerdy talks on the bizarre and beautiful, the intriguing and inexplicable, and a little bit of biochemistry that may change the way you look at the troops of trick-or-treaters who come to your door! Plus, live tunes from Atlanta’s own singer/songwriter Billy Gewin! Peep the details below and be there, and be square.
When: Wednesday, October 16th. Doors @ 7:30pm, Show @ 8:00pm sharp (arrive early!)
Where: Manuel’s Tavern, Poncey-Highlands, 602 N Highland Ave NE.
Cost: $5 cover.
WHO YOU’LL SEE, AND WHAT YOU’LL HEAR:
“Title TBA” by Michael Mooney, MASS Collective.
It is often the case that a group of something simple and rather boring will congregate and produce behavior that is unexpectedly different than its individual parts. This emergent behavior occurs in many facets of nature, and typically follows some rather simple guidelines. In this talk we will examine fish, locusts, and humans to find the common rule set that governs schooling, swarming, and traffic jams.
“How Hunting Ghosts is Really About Connecting With The Living” by Heather Dobson, Paranormal Georgia Investigations
Sure, everyone thinks being a ghost hunter is about chasing down those elusive spirits and making them appear, on demand, on camera, for fame and fortune on a reality series. But it’s not really all about that. Mostly, it’s about helping people who are too scared to sleep in their own beds, calming fears and anxieties about our ultimate ends, and possibly even affecting the haunted locations with hauntings of our own. I mean, we know it can’t be about the money or the babes because there is NONE of that. There is a lot of crazy here…More so among the living than the dead!
Bio: Heather is the director of Paranormal Georgia Investigations. She grew up in Charleston, West Virginia, with a father who had a great interest in the paranormal. He told her stories of ghosts, UFOs, the Braxton County monster, and especially of the Mothman, the harbinger of the Silver Bridge collapse in Point Pleasant, WV, 1967. Following this upbringing it was only natural she would develop a keen interest in the paranormal. Heather received her degree in physics from North Georgia College and worked as a circuit board designer, scuba diving instructor, and social media blogger. When not investigating purported hauntings, she scuba dives and plays the hammered dulcimer.
“Molecular Monsters: tracing the biochemical beginnings of Halloween’s brightest stars” by Kristopher Hite, Ph.D.
Teeth lengthened by receding gums glow in the shaded valleys of the Carpathian basin. The genetic milieu of the Visigoths, Huns, Carpians, and Slavic peoples have swirled over centuries as granite crags pushed populations into shallow gene pools. A ghoulish thing of legend emerged from Transylvania and has since soaked literature and pop-culture with a reddish froth. Science and medicine have given us reason not to fear for our necks in a story that is truly stranger than fiction.
Bio: TBA
And featuring live music by Atlanta’s own, Billy Gewin
Tell your friends!
Be there and be square!
RSVP for our first Nerd Nite on Facebook…..HERE!
Remember, remember the 18th of September. It’s a Wednesday for your head-nesday. Heck to the yeah! The first Nerd Nite ATL is finally here, and we’ve got a great show in store for you. Peep the details below and be there, and be square.
When: Wednesday, September 18th. Doors @ 7pm, Show @ 7:30pm sharp
Where: Pizzeria Vesuvius, Old Fourth Ward, 327 Edgewood Ave SE.
NOTE: We don’t know how many people will turn out for this first event, and we have a limited capacity at PV. So we recommend showing up early.
Cost: $5 cover, food/drink special = $8 for two pizza slices and a domestic beer.
WHO YOU’LL SEE, AND WHAT YOU’LL HEAR:
“All that Glitters is Ke$ha” by Laura Relyea.
One writer’s embrace of womanhood, feminism, and all that shimmers. In her chapbook, All Glitter, Everything (released by Safety Third Enterprises on October 24th), Laura Relyea writes to and about the riot-act of a pop icon – Ke$ha. In these stories, Ke$ha becomes much more than the Jack-loving, glitter Queen we have grown to know and love. Ke$ha becomes every woman. Every friend. She is a verb. She is a noun. She is a feeling. Ke$ha is messy. Ke$ha is fun. Ke$ha is sorry (but Ke$ha is never sorry).
Bio: Laura Relyea is a writer and the Editor and Atlanta Vicereine of Vouched Books. She’s reviewed books for PASTE, Creative Loafing, Fanzine, and elsewhere. Her fiction and poetry have been published in places like NAP, Stoked, Coconut, and Necessary Fiction. She’s the Whipcracker & Momentum Chief of the Inman Park Squirrel Census. She both fears and respects glitter.
“Microbes and Malt: a Scientist’s Adventures in Homebrewing” by Jacob Shreckengost, Ph.D.
What happens when a passion for science meets a passion for beer? Pure chemistry.
Join me for a tale of adventures (and misadventures) in the home brewery of neuroscientist. From culturing yeast, to amylase activity, to exploding fermenters. We’ll discuss the method (and madness) of brewing your own beer, and how to understand most of the biological processes that contribute to the world’s most beloved beverage.
Bio: Jacob Shreckengost grew up in rural Western PA (go Steelers!) as the 2nd of three boys and son to a high school physics teacher and a gunsmith. Always a science nerd, he headed to the University of Chicago to expand his mind. Upon completion, he moved to southwestern Germany where he first encountered GOOD beer. Moving back to the US, he cautiously ventured south of the Mason Dixon line in 2005 to Atlanta, where he completed his PhD in neuroscience at Emory. It was there that he took up home brewing, and has been making magic ever since. Jacob currently lives in Inman Park with his two snorty dogs and his beautiful wife, and fellow neuroscientist, Constance.
“My affair with Sciurus Carolinesis (Eastern Gray Squirrel)” by Jamie Allen.
Wherein writer Jamie Allen talks about, among other things, the canine and creative inspirations for the Inman Park Squirrel Census; how one goes about initiating a squirrel census in one’s own neighborhood filled with squirrel haters or the merely squirrel-passive; how one goes about getting others more talented than oneself involved in a squirrel census; how one takes the information gathered in a Squirrel Census and turns it into infographics, a website, a data presentation, and a successful Kickstarter; and most of all, how one answers the dumbest question ever applied to a creative project about squirrels: “Why count squirrels? Why?”
Bio: Jamie Allen is writer who lives in Inman Park. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in outlets including The Missouri Review, McSweeney’s, Paste, Atlanta Magazine, and Slate. In 2011, he created the Inman Park Squirrel Census, which was picked one of Kickstarter’s best projects of 2012.
And featuring jazz standards by Atlanta’s one and only bass-playing gorilla, Sass Parilla!