Geekdom And The Wars Of Infinte Freedom

I want to follow up on my post about how I missed Geek Evangelism. I had stated that I frankly missed the passionate outreach, even when it was annoying, as it had been replaced with stark territoriality. What, I wondered, had happened?

My conclusion was basically too many geeks had gone into the internet echo chamber, where even more marketing echoed, and sealed themselves off.  Some of us, many of us didn’t end up in echo chambers (or ended up in larger ones that were well-aired), and those echo-chambers confused the hell out of us.

Yet I had noted that the internet also let people re-invent fandoms and themselves. Harry Potter fandom seemed to spring to life on the internet, cultivated not from any origin in earlier fandom, but by fans itself.  Many that followed seemed the same way, springing up everywhere, diverse, wide, and often crazy.

Yet these too would end up in fan wars and conflicts and battling echo chambers.

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Franchises And Thoughts

Org Chart

I’ve started to question the value of franchises.

This may sound strange in many ways.

  • You may wonder “what the hell took you so long?” as we try to figure out why Spider-Man movies keep getting remade.
  • You may wonder why I care, because I’m bang alongside crazy creativity, cosplay, fanfic – and I haven’t really mentioned this.
  • You may wonder if I’m becoming a crotchety old geek. I’m not, I’m still cool and still love being a Pyro in TF2.

So let me explain exactly what started this. It all has to do with Grand Moff Tarkin.

For those of you who don’t recall, yes, that’s the guy played by Peter Cushing in the first Star Wars film. Commander of the Death Star, didn’t take crap from Vader, and looked like he was permanently bitter at life.  I figure it’s because the name “Tarkin” sounds like an artificial fabric winter coats are made out of.

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Lessa Bouchard of Arc:Hive Discusses “A Moment (Un)bound”

Imagine an art instillation that inspires a play that’s Harry Potter meets the X-Men. Imagine an evolving play about an archive of the world and hidden family secrets. If you can, you’ve got what’s going on A Moment (Un) Bound, an art/play event going on here in Silicon Valley. When I heard of it, I had to interview Lessa Bouchard, a Producing Ensemble Member of the Arc:Hive collective.

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