Larping, Batman, WoW, Comic Books, Indie music and more

Was it Bill Gates who first said 'One day, nerds will rule the world'? Maybe not, but it seems like that day has come and past, and that we are now living in The Age of The Geek, where the coolest thing you can do, is be un-cool.

This social movement has been slowly occuring over the past few years, but it seems like this year more than ever the nerd scene has exploded all over North America, and possibly the rest of the world too. Ever since the invention of highschool....or human beings, the nerd has existed. Just like everyother sub group of people around, they have a culture that is very specific to them and their unique tastes, and it hasn't changed very much over the past 50 years. They read comic books, play video games, listen to obscure music and for the most part, are the lanky passive aggressive kids that will end up helping the world more than that jock sitting at the popular table ever will. What evidence do I have to back this up? Alot.

First of all, every single big movie this year has been based off a comic book or a video game: The Hulk, Ironman, The Dark Knight (WHICH, by the way, is the second biggest movie of all time....so THERE), Hell Boy II (and most recently, Max Payne, which was a video game...but from what I hear, the game was better, sorry Mark Walhburg) and also Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

The most anticipated movie of 2009 so far is Watchmen, which of course is based off of the ground breaking graphic novel by Alan Moore of the same name (other novels of Moores have been made into films too, including V for Vendetta and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). The movie/novel follows a group of masked vigilantes in the dystopian 1980's, where the Death Clock is set at 10 minutes to midnight. I've read it, and it's awesome. Just thinking about it makes me geek out, and after seeing some footage thats been released from the movie, it looks like its going to be amazing. 

World of Warcraft is one of the best selling online video games of all time, too, with over 11 million montly subscribers world wide. It has become so immensly popular that everyone of all all races, genders, ages, etc can play it, and South Park did a satire of it in the Emmy nominated episode Make Love, Not Warcraft that was viewed by millions. 

Lastly, industries such as the Comic Book Industry, the Indie Music Industry and the Graphic Novel Industry have had a huge flux in sales...it seems that more and more people have become interested in the obscure. To be seen thumbing through Ghost World while listening to Matthew Sweet, while at a Starbucks drinking a Chai Latte while also updating your tech blog is to be god in this new social wave. 

Also, we have to take a look at what we've been seeing in movies: between Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, Napolean Dynamite (and yes, unfortunatly) Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, we're shown protagonists that aren't the swave, cool people we're used to seeing. These people are overweight or lanky, they don't have perfect hair, they play video games, they get picked on, they get dumped, they don't always win, they have hamburger phones, and  they're generally considerd un-cool........which by some 360 degree turn of fate makes them unbelievably cool.

With the other interesting movements that are happening right now, it says alot about my generation: we've had it with our parents way of doing things. The old school, conventional method of doing this just isn't doing it for us. We need something new, different, outside the box...and something that our parents deffinatly won't understand, aka: the geek. So it may be in your best interest to hit up your local nerd for some music, movies and more, because if you want to be cool, you better stock up while you can.

PS

The comedy hit Role Models which just came out this weekend features a main character who is a nerd, who LARPS (if you don't know what LARPing is, its short for Live Action Role Playing Game....pretty much a bunch of nerds get together, dress up as knights, pagans, etc and pretend to fight each other.....imagine you as a kid playing with other kids...oh yeah, and here's a video if your still not convinced....)

And the Winner is...

So its official. We can't call the Americans stupid for at least a month. Why? Because for the first time in awhile, the American people have finally voted for and elected a smart person to be their president: Barack Obama.

Oh yeah, and he's black, too.

I have to say that even though I don't live in the United States, I'm really happy that Obama won. The USA is the most powerful country in the world, and its nice to know that a smart, articulate, well liked, patriotic and over all great person is in charge of it.

There's only one problem with Obama's win.

First of all, there are death threats flying left and right. Of course, with any president this is going to occur. There's always a few gun totting whack jobs out there that don't approve of your politics and would like to see you wiped off the face of the earth, and they think they're the person to do it. But this goes beyond that: for the first time ever, the United States has a person in charge who's African American. This means that before well hidden racist groups (and not so well hidden racist groups, aka the kkk) are surfacing in full force...and they're pissed. Which, of course, isn't right. I don't want to have to go on and on about why racism is BAD and over all IDIOTIC, so I'll just say this: we are all humans, black, white, yellow and every color in between. DEAL WITH IT.

The other thing that bothers me is this:

This entire campaign, Obama has been preaching about change. How, when he gets elected into office, things will be different, better, brighter for all of America. How a revolution is coming in the form of politics and that we can be happy again, we can hope again. Obviously, his message of hope and change was heard and echoed all throughout the US, and he's now president. As the first black president, the first president after the horrendous 8 year reign of Bush, and the person to be advocating a new wave of change to wash over the people of the United States...those people have come to expect a lot of him. And not just the people from the states, but all over the world. This election was important to a lot of people, and for most of us, our confidence is riding on Obama. Although he's said that at first, he and vice president Biden might make a few decisions that the American people might not like, I feel that people are still hoping for the unachievable:

That with Obama as president, the economy is suddenly going to take a turn for the better, instantaneously, troops will be taken out of Iraq, gas prices will plummet, global warming will disappear, the corporate fat cats of American will be shaking in their boots as Barack shows them who's boss, international relationships will soar, poverty will no longer exist, health care for everyone will exist, Osama Bin Laden will finally be found, hot button issues like gay marriage will be resolved, alternative fuel sources will be found, and they will be affordable, time machines will be invented, Indiana Jones 5 will NEVER be made, E.T WILL go home, and yes, Nancy Drew WILL solve the mystery of the Clue in the Ivy!!

Okay, so maybe those last few were a bit of a stretch, but you get my drift: Americans are expecting a lot out of Barack, and sadly, despite what everyone thinks, he will not be able to do everything. Change may happen, but it will be slow and small at first. Think about the situation in simple terms: George Bush had his fun, and left the big white club house where he hung out for a few years in ruin. Obama is walking into a mess, and it will take some time to sort through it all and really make some revolutions happen.

All I'm saying is don't hold your breath, America, and don't expect too much too soon. Barack is capable of great things, but you may have to go through a few disappointments to get to the good stuff. But after all, you should be used to disappointment: you just put up with 8 years of Dub-ya.