nerd nite

Archive for the ‘NYC’ Category

Nerd Nite prides itself on bringing its audience fun-yet-informative presentations about countless subjects and disciplines.  But on December 3, 2013, Nerd Nite NYC shines the spotlight specifically on music and movies.  Join us for a special weekday Nite at the lovely Brooklyn Winery in Williamsburg that will feature presentations about D-movies, math feuds, and choose-your-own music videos.  Enjoy laughing at awful movies, listening to Paco rap about math, and watching a music video get customized before your eyes.  Space is limited and the venue is lovely, so act fast. Fun! Buy tickets here.

Tuesday December 3, 2013
$10 (sorry, there’s a pretty ridiculous $4 service fee)
213 N 8th St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Take L train to Bedford stop

*Presentation #1
Crappy Cinema Council: Nerds!
by Jim Van Blaricum and Jim Crocamo

Description: Comedians Jim Crocamo and Jim VanBlaricum will be presenting a special Nerd Nite-exclusive version of Crappy Cinema Council, their monthly celebration of sub-par films. They’ll show hilarious, undiscovered clips from the weirdest, worst movies that they watched so you don’t have to. This is your chance to see the show that Time Out New York described as “comedy” and “in Brooklyn”!

Bio: Jim and Jim are two dudes who watch bad movies and make fun of them in front of people. After subjecting friends and family to screenings of terrible films throughout their lives, they combined forces in 2010 to add “total strangers” to the list of those they’ve forced to watch weird garbage. Sometimes they post stuff on crappycinemacouncil.com. They are much better at comedy than they are at writing summaries and bios.

*Presentation #2
XELLE presents Hologram: the first truly interactive, choose-your-own-adventure music video
by JC Cassis

Description: In pop group XELLE’s interactive music video for their single, Hologram, Janeane Garofalo stars as Holly Graham, the “Charlie” to XELLE’s “Angels.” Legendary singer Martha Wash (“It’s Raining Men”) has been captured by Meanie Mo (played by Reno 911′s Kerri Kenney-Silver), and it’s up to you to help XELLE save her. Hologram is the longest music video of all time, consisting of 37 possible video segments to choose from and over 90 minutes of footage, and only you can choose the storyline that will lead to Martha’s rescue. In this presentation, XELLE will guide you through the video as you choose where to go, what to do, and how to escape sudden death at any wrong turn. This fully interactive video was created by utilizing YouTube’s existing features to create a never-before-seen web 2.0 experience.

Bio: You’ve heard of XELLE. They’re that girl group that threw an illegal dance party on a moving NYC subway train for their debut video, Party Girl. They’re the indie band whose songs and videos are lighting up TV shows, radio stations and dance floors around the world. They’re those sexy girls with huge voices who rocked the stage at your favorite club last night. They are XELLE, and you’ve been waiting for them to come along.

Presentation #3
Mathematicians: Behind the Music
by Paco Adam Hanlon

Description: Back by popular demand! Take a tour of the dank, trash-strewn alleys of the mathematical world. This portal into the seedy underbelly of math promises to be full of cheating scoundrels, meth-addiction, vagrancy, and no less than four cold-blooded murders. All this and more in the pursuit of inventing your iPhone, sewer system, and all those lovely ballistic missiles! Plus, you’ll finally be able to say you can name more than one important mathematician!

Bio: Paco Adam Hanlon is a math teacher and curriculum designer at the Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School for a Sustainable City. He is a Math for America fellow, has a BS in Actuarial Mathematics from University of Michigan and a Masters in Secondary Mathematics Teaching from Bard (where he also published a paper on stochastic cellular automata). He also records and performs hip-hop music under the name Dopest Nerd (album on iTunes and new mixtape coming soon).

The new bar / lemonade stand, Lizzmonade, just opened its newest location on Pier 2 at Brooklyn Bridge Park.  Yes, as in the park with the best view of lower Manhattan.  The bar was a lovely place to spend warm summer nights outdoors enjoying cocktails and priceless views – and now you can play trivia too a bit longer.  We extended our summer Tuesday nights trivia through mid-September.  So now you can come by on Tuesday September 10 and/or Tuesday September 17 too at 8pm!  It’s just $5/person and you can have up to 6 people on a team to play.  So come on down to Pier 2 with some friends, play some trivia, have some drinks, and enjoy NYC in its late-summer’s finest.

Nerd Nite Trivia @ Lizzmonade
Pier 2, Brooklyn Bridge Park
A/C to High Street
Tuesday September 10 & 17, 2013
8pm
$5/person – teams can have up to 6 people

Win prizes and drink drinks!

The new bar / lemonade stand, Lizzmonade, just opened its newest location on Pier 2 at Brooklyn Bridge Park.  Yes, as in the park with the best view of lower Manhattan.  The bar is a lovely place to spend warm summer nights outdoors enjoying cocktails and priceless views – and now you can play trivia too.  Every Tuesday this summer, starting on July 16, 2013, we’ll be holding trivia nights there at 8pm.  It’s just $5/person and you can have up to 6 people on a team to play.  So come on down to Pier 2 with some friends, play some trivia, have some drinks, and enjoy NYC in its summer’s finest.

Nerd Nite Trivia @ Lizzmonade
Pier 2, Brooklyn Bridge Park
A/C to High StreetTuesdays in July and August (starting July 16, 2013)
8pm
$5/person – teams can have up to 6 people

Win prizes and drink drinks!

We held our first live online-only webinar on Sunday March 24, 2013 featuring 3-time Nerd Nite NYC presenter Erin Thompson discussing, Bad Trips: Not How to Explore the World, a presentation she first gave in Fall 2011 that was subsequently rewritten as an article for Nerd Nite: The Magazine.  Erin’s presentation was a guinea pig presentation to determine if we can regularly offer webcasts by presenters across the globe…we can!  Watch the recording here.

Bad Trips: How Not to Explore the World
by Erin L. Thompson

The intrepid linguist subduing restive natives; the idealistic scientist struggling to reach base camp; the daring journalist hacking through the jungle… didn’t we all dream of doing such things and thereby elevating our nerdiness into nerdy badassery? Well, it’s a good thing we didn’t actually, because it turns out that exploration totally sucks. Thompson will go over the minor accomplishments and major failures of three notable explorers: Charles Montagu Doughty (“Travels in Arabia Deserta,” 1888), who spent years enduring death threats and camel dung in his tea so that he could examine, and fail to translate, pre-Arabic inscriptions; Apsley Cherry-Garrard (“The Worst Journey in the World,” 1922), who nearly froze to death on an expedition to collect Empire penguin eggs only to have the scientists who requested them inform him that they weren’t needed any more when he got back; and Graham Greene (Journey Without Maps,” 1936), who, well, acted like Graham Greene while hiking across unmapped areas of Liberia, proving that whiskey makes everything better in the end.

Bio: Erin L. Thompson has given previous Nerd Nite presentations about art forgery and antiquities smuggling. She has a PhD in ancient art history from Columbia University, and is an intellectual property and tech lawyer in Manhattan.

Hello Worldwide Nerds and Friends of Nerds!
In the better-late-than-never category, we’ll hold our first live online-only webinar on Sunday March 24 at 9pm EDT / 6pm PDT by 3-time Nerd Nite NYC presenter Erin Thompson about Bad Trips: Not How to Explore the World, a presentation she gave in Fall 2011 that was subsequently rewritten as an article for Nerd Nite: The Magazine.  Erin’s presentation will be a guinea pig presentation to determine if we can offer weekly webcasts by presenters across the globe.  As an audience member, you simply need speakers/headphones to connect from your laptop, iPhone, or iPad.  Register here (it’s free).  Though we’ll certainly accept small donations if you think our content is worth a nominal amount.

Sunday March 24, 2013 at 9pm EDT / 6pm PDT
Online via Blackboard Collaborate. Will email you the link 30 minutes before the webcast

Bad Trips: How Not to Explore the World
by Erin L. Thompson

The intrepid linguist subduing restive natives; the idealistic scientist struggling to reach base camp; the daring journalist hacking through the jungle… didn’t we all dream of doing such things and thereby elevating our nerdiness into nerdy badassery? Well, it’s a good thing we didn’t actually, because it turns out that exploration totally sucks. Thompson will go over the minor accomplishments and major failures of three notable explorers: Charles Montagu Doughty (“Travels in Arabia Deserta,” 1888), who spent years enduring death threats and camel dung in his tea so that he could examine, and fail to translate, pre-Arabic inscriptions; Apsley Cherry-Garrard (“The Worst Journey in the World,” 1922), who nearly froze to death on an expedition to collect Empire penguin eggs only to have the scientists who requested them inform him that they weren’t needed any more when he got back; and Graham Greene (Journey Without Maps,” 1936), who, well, acted like Graham Greene while hiking across unmapped areas of Liberia, proving that whiskey makes everything better in the end.

Bio: Erin L. Thompson has given previous Nerd Nite presentations about art forgery and antiquities smuggling. She has a PhD in ancient art history from Columbia University, and is an intellectual property and tech lawyer in Manhattan.

We all love the movies.  From dramas and sci-fi, to low-brow teeny romps and those films of the adult persuasion, there’s just something irresistible about the cinema.  So we’re proud to announce a special Nerd Nite Movie Nite.  The folks at Videology in Williamsburg are unveiling their brand new watch-a-movie-while-drinking-cocktails theater, and we’re helping them kick it off.  Join us on Thursday November 29, 2012 featuring presentations about the psychology of screenwriting, DIY filmmaking, and a humorous look at D-movies (you know, the ones that make B-movies look like blockbusters). Hooray for drinking and movie-themed presentations! Buy tickets ($10) at http://www.regonline.com/nerdnitemovies.

Nerd Nite Movie Nite
Thursday November 29, 2012 at 8pm
at Videology in Williamsburg
308 Bedford Avenue

Back to the Lectures At-Hand:
*Presentation #1
The Psychology of Scriptwriting : The Spooky World of the Scriptwriter’s Mind
by Jack Feldstein

Description: Writing a script? Join us for a wild and wacky tour into scriptwriters’ minds. Why do scriptwriters write scripts?  What makes them sit in rooms and mumble to themselves obsessively for hours? Discover the inner workings of your own… scriptwriting mind!

Bio: Originally from Sydney, Australia, Jack Feldstein is an award-winning neon animator and scriptwriter. His neon animations have screened worldwide from Rotterdam International Film Festival to Lincoln Center, NY. As a scriptwriter, he writes for feature film, TV, theater and was an interactive scriptwriter for Superman, Xena and Spiderman webisodes. http://www.jackfeldstein.com

*Presentation #2
COMING SOON

*Presentation #3
COMING SOON

You loved ‘em before but also didn’t see ‘em all.  So we’re having our annual night of  greatest hits presentations!  Enjoy repeat performances about the history of video games, the sordid, scandalous beginnings of Monopoly (F you, Parker Brothers), and the psychology of Twilight (will Bella ever learn?) on the enchanting fall evening of Friday October 12.  Yep, we’re reaching into the vault to bring back those laughs and cries of Nerd Nites past.  Oh yeah, and trivia’s back too beforehand, so form a team and win some kick-ass prizes (finally!).

Buy tickets now ($14 for trivia and $10 for presentations-only)

The Psychology of Twilight: Why Bella Can’t Resist Edward…And You’ll Always Want The One You Can’t Have
by Susan Carnell

Description: Ever dared to venture into the perilous world of online dating? Imagine coming across this little gem: “Moody murderer seeks clumsy girlfriend for life-threatening gang-fights and huge amounts of sexual tension with absolutely no pay-off.” Excited to date him? Itching to send him a message? Call me fussy if you will, but he’s not exactly my type – and I doubt Bella Swan would fancy him either. But here’s the really frightening thing: While Edward Cullen also has redeeming qualities (strong, superhumanly handsome, smells good…) – it’s precisely the bad, dangerous ones that make Bella desire him the most. And it’s not just her personal problem – in all likelihood the rest of us would also fall prey to his bloodthirsty charms. Let Susan Carnell take you on a terrifying, lust-filled journey through the psychology and neuroscience of attraction and relationships. She can’t promise you’ll like everything you hear, but after this talk you’ll be sure of at least one thing: Jacob Black never stood a chance.

Bio: Susan Carnell is a research psychologist at Columbia University where she studies the social, psychological and biological drivers of appetite and body weight. This sometimes involves putting people in brain scanners and showing them pictures of chocolate brownies. A long-time fan of supernatural entertainment, she admits to watching back episodes of the X-files on Netflix, and was first introduced to the joys of the Twilight saga at an outdoor screening of the first movie, where she was astonished to witness fully-grown women swooning like giddy 14-year-olds. Her impassioned vampire advocacy essay, “The Case for Edward Cullen” recently came out in a book called “The Psychology of Twilight”, (http://www.benbellabooks.com/bookstore/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=1865), and you can nibble on her food-related musings here: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/bad-appetite.

CALLING ALL NERDS IN NEED OF AN ECO-FRIENDLY RIDE!

On Friday, September 7, at our Nerd Nite Nerdtacular, Chevrolet will offer vehicles for Manhattan workers/dwellers to transport themselves to Nerd Nite, as well as chauffeured transportation home from the Galapagos Art Space following the event.  Pre-event vehicle loans and post-event shuttle service are first-come, first-served with limited seats, so don’t forget to RSVP to molly.biddiscombe{AT}mslgroup.com if you’re interested.

The Pick-Up Deets:
6:45pm & 7:15pm:  First 36 guests who RSVP can drive themselves or ride as a passenger to Nerd Nite in a Chevy.
10:45pm: First 20 guests who RSVP can hitch a ride back to Manhattan at the conclusion of Nerd Nite (save cab $$ or a subway ride!).

Pick-up and drop-off spot:  Union Square in front of Parsons The New School for Design: 5^th Avenue at the corner of 13th Street.

When RSVPing, please indicate if you’d like to be a driver or passenger.

You can RSVP for both pick-up and drop-off.

Save the cab fare and come check out all that Chevy has to offer – from dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs, award-winning passenger cars and crossovers, and other gas-friendly Chevrolet vehicles!

Hey All, The Maury Povich show (yes, apparently it still exists) is doing a “nerd” makeover / before-and-after show.  Anyone interested? If so, contact this guy by September 6, 2012.  I believe the show tapes on September 20, 2012:    Contact: davidr.block[AT]nbcuni.com

Apparently they’re first looking for people who once looked ‘nerdy’ and now ‘don’t look nerdy.’ They seem keen on having before-and-after pictures.  Go for it if you want.   I’m just the messenger…

Tired of pub trivia games that focus too much on sports and politics?  Well here’s your chance to flex your knowledge of all-things-theatre as the folks from Nerd Nite and the Signature Theatre present Nerd Nite Trivia: Theatre Edition.  So assemble a team (up to 6 players) and put on your thinking caps – and your make-up – and head to the glorious Signature Theatre on Tuesday September 18 at 9pm.
Buy tickets now ($10) at http://www.regonline.com/nerdnitetrivia

Tuesday September 18, 2012 at 9pm
Signature Theatre
480 West 42nd Street
New York, NY 10036