Galactic Watercooler

We review our favorite parts of this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, including bronies, ubiquitous butt cheeks, Sean’s awesome art acquisition, and hanging out with the small press peeps; and we feature a segment recorded live with a band of GWCers at the con! And we run down the Week in Geek, reviewing some newly-announced Emmy [...]

We give love to the table-top games we grew up with and appreciate their role in a world before widespread video games. Audra talks about early digging on Trivial Pursuit, her meticulous Mouse Trap setup, and getting stuck being the thimble in Monopoly. Chuck and Sean take a serious look at competition, conflict, and friendship [...]

We reminisce on our favorite childhood toys and delve into memories of specific character-building moments. Audra recalls the excitement of older cousins’ 1980 Hot Wheels City Play Set and Castle Grayskull fortress, and admits her own favorite toy was selected for its smell. Chuck and Sean geek out on Matchbox cars, model rockets, and the [...]

We revel in remembering some of the best (and worst) toys of our childhoods, give props to homemade toys, and realize how much toys shape the kind of people we become. We recall what it was like to polish your own rocks, struggle with the infernal spirograph, try to get any real speed on a [...]

We dive into a great discussion of Prometheus and the questions it raises about human creation and corruption; the colonization of ancient earth; alien warning frescoes; self-sacrifice vs. selfishness; why the Engineer may have been justified in wanting to Kill All Humans; plagiarized cave paintings; and why Jesus may have been way taller — and buffer — than [...]

We talk specifically about how the US space program affected us during our formative years, and we speculate on how it might play into the development of today’s young geeks. And we run down the week in geek, including new Spider-Man and Total Recall trailers, awesome Robocop casting news (on two fronts!), the current popularity [...]

We wrap up our growing up geek arc this week with some mixed discussion of how our various media selections fit together to make us who we are today. Also, we run down the week in geek, including Ray Bradbury’s death (and how Fahrenheit 451’s message still applies in today’s digital book market), the new [...]

We continue our growing up geek arc with the novel The Hero and The Crown, which provided Sean entry into the worlds of reading and fantasy. We discuss how his experience (and others like his) lead to lifetime learning, advocate for more flexible reading lists for early readers, and talk about the true purposes of [...]

This week we check out a media object significant to Chuck’s early development as a geek: War Games. We talk about the differences between getting “into” computers in the 80s vs. now, and each of us share some experiences with interacting with tech over the years. Also, as always, we run down the week in [...]

We kick off a new arc in which each of us choose one media object that had a significant effect on our development as a young geek. Up this week is Audra, who takes us on a tour of Flight of the Navigator. And we run down the week in geek, including the awesome Big [...]

Finally! We watch the new Marvel Avengers flick and offer our comments and analysis. Excuse this short (but spoiler-free!) description, but suffice it to say that we had a great time and found lots of interesting moments/meanings. Can’t wait to hear what you have to say, too.

Avengers releases this upcoming week, so we’re wrapping up our pre-Avengers re-watch of recent Marvel flicks with 2011’s Captain America. We discuss Steve Rogers’ unsung true superpower and the movie’s interesting selection of rogues. And we run down the week in geek — plus some fun general geeking-out over The Guild and other awesome web [...]

The Avengers release grows ever closer as we take a look at the general public’s introduction to Marvel’s Norse god Thor. We find inspiration in Thor’s each-day-at-a-time attitude. We dig into the similarities between Shakespeare’s plays and comic superhero stories, concluding that superhero tales may have a much longer lifespan of cultural significance than many [...]

Our Avengers lead-up arc marches on with a re-watch of Iron Man 2.

We continue our Avengers arc with the first Iron Man movie. Chuck relates why he connects so much with Tony Stark. We question whether we finally live in a world where a new Iron Man-like story could feature a female protagonist. And we run down the week in geek, including our celebrations of First Contact [...]