How To Grow Your Geek: Parenting and More!

Sometimes you just need the silly.

Hey guys!
Yep even on a trip to Wisconsin Dells, I still manage to do reviews for you all.

I thought I would stick with the adventure thing and this time do a dvd review of a old old pulp fiction hero. Back in the day there was Buck Rodgers, Flash Gordon, Sargent rock and one more…Doc Savage.

I had heard of him a long time now, never read any of the books; but sounded a lot like Indiana Jones to me. So when I came across this in dad’s dvds I was like cool! Dad said I may not like it, but I……well lets just see.

Doc Savage. Man of Bronze  – A dvd review by Darcy Low

From the dvd case: “Clark Savage Jr. aka Doc Savage was at his Fortress of Solitude when his empathic abilities sense something is wrong. So he returns to New York and is informed by his confidants, The Fabulous Five that his father, a missionary died somewhere in South America of a tropical disease. He is also told that his father sent him something before he died, and his associates locked it in his safe. He was about to open it when someone takes a shot at him but misses. Doc chases him down and he falls to his death. He appears to be some kind of native, quite possibly from South America. Someone blows up the safe destroying the papers his father sent him, and Doc’s empathic ability goes off again, telling him that his father was murdered. Doc decides to go to the country where his father died to see if he can find out what happened. But after their plane takes off someone tries to shoot it down but Doc had the foresight to send a drone. When he gets there someone tries to kill him, in a peculiar manner.”

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A pirate named Tommy

Hi Guys,
I got a rare one for you this time. It is out on dvd, just not sure how easy it to get anymore. It is one dad had on the shelf I pulled down.
Way back before Indy, and long before Captain Jack. There was a Pirate by the name of Bully Hayes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bully_Hayes

A real life pirate, that roamed the South Sea. This is his story.

Nate and Hayes – A dvd review by Darcy Low.

“Nate and Hayes. After wiping out half a village of native South Pacific tribesmen, Captain Bully Hayes (Tommy Lee Jones) is eventually captured, put in prison, and the rest of this swashbuckling action film is told in a series of flashbacks as he remembers the recent past. The lead-in scene may be off-putting, but its larger context is soon revealed. Hayes had just left a young couple, Nate (Michael O’Keefe) and Sophie (Jennie Seagrove) on an island so they could set up housekeeping and follow in the missionary footsteps of an uncle, when the villain Ben Pease (Max Phipps) shows up, kidnaps Sophie and leaves her husband for dead. Pease runs into a German naval officer who feels it would be advantageous to join up with him — so when Captain Hayes saves Nate and, the two go looking for Sophie, their enemies are formidable villains indeed. Laced with humor and acting in the grand pirate-movie tradition.”  – From the All Movie Guide.

I really liked this one. Dad said when it first came out, it was a flop at the box office. Which is weird to me, because it is really good. It has action, a great plot and Tommy Lee Jones as a pirate with a beard! I mean what more could you want?

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 HTGYG Show #79: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Sponsor: Try GotoMeeting free for 30 days!

*SPOILER ALERT*

The kids and I present a review/summary of the movie “Despicable Me,” and encourage you all to go see it! It was a thoroughly enjoyable movie for kids and adults, and well worth a visit to the theater – which is saying a lot, considering our family usually waits for everything on Netflix!

Then, we have a few voicemails from Lizzie, Tim and Wyatt, and then I urge everyone to visit the Parsec Awards site to check our our newly posted list of finalists! These are some of the best offerings out there in speculative fiction podcasting!

Please email me with your own comments at howtogrowyourgeek-at-gmail-dot-com, or call my voicemail number at 206-202-7309   and leave your thoughts. You can also visit our forum at the Farpoint Forums. And last but not least, you can follow me on Twitter at SusietheGeek or the show at HowToGrowGeek!

Theme music courtesy of Jonathan Coulton

Promos: Parsec Finalists: Variant Frequencies and The Babylon Podcast

The last Starfighter you will ever need.

Back twenty five years ago, a lot of things were different. Music kinda sucked, clothes were different, man dad had actual hair, and video games were just getting started. In fact, back then if you wanted to play the lasted one out there, you had to go to a arcade or a bowling alley. Wow how things have changed huh? Back then, a kid playing a video game had dreams; some of getting the high score and others a much larger dream. Something on the verge of becoming a hero, rising above their drab and boring lives, and gaining something epic. Such is the dream of Alex, but I am getting a head of myself….

The Last Starfighter – A dvd review by Darcy Low

From the back of the dvd: ” Greeting Starfighter! You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier against Xur and the Kodan armada.
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 HTGYG Show #78 [23:25m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Sponsor: Try GotoMeeting free for 30 days!

This week, I join the celebration of the Summer of SciFi at Slice of SciFi with my review of the 1978 original theatrical release of Battlestar Galactica. You can find my review of the movie over there, and listen to my casual commentary of the movie, the series, my comparison of it and Star Wars, and other general bits of me babbling here! I also remind you all to be looking for the finalists of the Parsec Awards to be announced here soon – as we are finishing up semifinalist judging right now!

Please email me with your own comments at howtogrowyourgeek-at-gmail-dot-com, or call my voicemail number at 206-202-7309   and leave your thoughts. You can also visit our forum at the Farpoint Forums. And last but not least, you can follow me on Twitter at SusietheGeek or the show at HowToGrowGeek!

Theme music courtesy of Jonathan Coulton

Photos from the Battlestar Wiki

Promos: Slice of SciFi and The Dragon Page: Cover to Cover

The one that got me started.

Hey guys,
Well I am finally back online after being with out the internet. Longest two weeks of my life!  This time I thought I would go back to the very beginning. To the movie that started me on the road to geekness. When I first got here and got to looking at all of dad’s old dvd’s  I saw a lot of cool covers and names, but I had no idea where to start. What was good, what was bad, what was worth watching? So dad pulled down this one and said if I wanted a good Sci Fi movie, one that is a classic in every sense of the word; I should start with this. It has spaceships, a mad scientist, a robot, ray guns and monsters.
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Hey guys,

Back again for another dvd review. This one really surprised me, with a lot of well named actors, a good story and a few other surprises. What I thought was going to be a all out comedy, turned out to be something else. Just goes to show you can’t judge a dvd by the cover. So this time around I am going take you back in time. Back to the days of Knights and Ladies, Heroes and Villains, Swords and of course; Dragons!

George and the Dragon – A dvd review by Darcy Low

From the back of the case. ” A dragon, a princess and a knight to remember. George, a handsome English knight, tired from battle; desires to hang up his sword and settle down to a quiet, peaceful life. Upon returning to England, George heads north where the land is good and ruled by a kindly king Edgar. Unfortunately he finds King Edgar in a terrible state. His beautiful daughter, Luna recently disappeared. In return for a small plot of land, George agrees to search for princess Luna and immediately setting out with King Edgar’s faithful servant, Elmendorf. After finding the princess, George discovers she has found a dragon’s egg, which they both believe holds the last dragon on earth. But protecting the egg unfolds more than George ever imagined.”

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Check out Darcy’s great review of the old movie “Conquest of Space” over at Slice of SciFi! Great job, Darcy!

Hey guys,
This one is going to be long, but I don’t think you will mind.
Yep I am back again, this time around I am reviewing another old classic. One I have never seen before but have heard about. It is one Jenny said I would love, and seeing how I was really sick all weekend, this one would not only cheer me up, but would really “Wow” me. Jenny have never been wrong yet and she sure wasn’t this time around either.

So it is summertime, and that usually means trips if you can afford it. So let’s take one, you will need a large trunk and you will have to pack for for everything. Where are we going? Everywhere. How long will we be gone? Oh….eighty days.

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Hey Guys,
Got a quick one for you this time around, more will be coming this weekend. Maybe even something I have never done before. Hmmmmmm, maybe.

Some of you may know Rowan Atkinson from the Black Adder series, which is wicked funny. But is geared more towards teens and adults due to the humor. But he also did a tv series where it was just him playing the main character, who seldom talked; but always got into some type of trouble. I am of course talking about Mr Bean. Here are a couple clips you might like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS1ePEZZCDY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=717G-A0N4Zo&feature=channel

Funny huh? This reminds me of all those old silent film stars I love like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. He takes the simplest things and makes them funny. The TV series is clean and everyone in the family can sit down to enjoy it together. Oh! When you do watch the show, be on the lookout for a little blue car, it shows up time after time and something always happens to it. The best one I saw was the one where he went down to the store to buy a new lounge chair. The car he has is so tiny the chair would never fit into it. (He drive a tiny mini cooper.) Wait until you see how he was able to dive home with the chair, you will be rolling, hehe.

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