Oklahoma, where the nerds come sweeping down the plain
Posted on Wednesday, 11 June 2008 by Negin Farsad
People!
Two quick things!
First: If you sign up to OurStage through this link, we get ONE DOLLAR! Ain’t that swell? You know who would really like that? My creditors!! They would love it if you help me raise money. They’re real sweet. They like to call me and check up on me regularly. They’re very attentive! I think its love. We here at Nerdcore Rising promise that every dollar raised will go to debt and to getting the movie into your faces, your lovely faces.
As for OurStage, they too are lovely because they give you access to new music – you get to listen to it, judge it critically, vote on it ostentatiously, and be a part of the gleeful process of helping musicians “make it.”
Thing Number Two: As the title of this blog entry might indicate (a title for which I should possibly be fired) the movie is screening in Oklahoma City at the deadCENTER Film Festival. Nerdcore Rising is, in fact, the closing night film - ain’t that something! And its screening in an outdoor type thingeejig which will make it a very starlit evening of the Nerdcore. Here’s the deal:
deadCENTER Festival Screening Details:
Closing Night Film
Saturday June 14, 9:30pm
Corner N.E. 3rd & E.K. Gaylord
Free to the Public! www.deadcenterfilm.org
See you at the country’s hearty center point.
Love,
PPS: By the way, did you know that 27,000 new people have visited us here at nerdcorerising.com since the movie premiered? That's just the newbies, I'm not even counting visits from the old-bies! Those are some numbers! Thank you for visiting!
Like Hillary and Barak before us, we here at Nerdcore Rising find ourselves in the midst of a fierce primary struggle. As you might already know from Wolf Blitzer's "We Report, You Decide" coverage on CNN, Nerdcore Rising is running for President of the From Here to Awesome Discovery & Distribution Festival!
What do we win if we win? That's a good question. We would win different types of distribution deals on multiple platforms, screenings in various cities around the country, free marketing/promotion from fancy big name outlets, and we would win the right to preside as President Pro-tempore of the US Senate. Basically, winning would be really really terribly awesome and it would make it more likely for the movie to come to a theatre near you. Like actually near you.
But we need your help. The schtick behind "From Here to Awesome" is that audiences actually help curate the festival. i.e. we report (what films are in the running) and you decide (what films make it to the top ten). FHTA has created an elaborate algorithm that involves, your "awesome vote" on the FHTA website, our youtube hit stats, our youtube subscriber stats, our myspace subscriber stats, our twitter follow stats, the number of comments our videos get, and the square root of Avogadro's Number.
IF YOU'RE FEELING RIDICULOUSLY CIVIC & OBSENELY ELECTORAL:
*Please subscribe to our youtube channel, our myspace blog, our twitter account, our facebook group, and comment your face off wherever you can (before June 6):
If our fanbase proves to be more hardcore than the other fanbases, then we get into the Top Ten and become an official selection of FROM HERE TO AWESOME. The result will be: more screenings, more distribution, and utopia.
Please help!!!!
Love & Vote-Begging,
Negin & Team Nerdcore Rising: The Movie
PS: If you're really feeling like going the extra mile, please follow the link below and sign up for OurStage - for every new member that signs up to OurStage through this link, Nerdcore Rising gets $1 - which in the world of oh-so-broke-credit-card-debt-laden-negin, is a painfully necessary thing. Plus, OurStage is awesome, its really trying to give independent musicians a designated platform to reach audiences and its giving audiences a chance to bypass record execs, radio playlists, and critics in deciding what tunes are worth listening to.
PPS: Do you live in Oklahoma City? Cause we're gonna be there as the Closing Night Film at the DeadCENTER Film Festival on June 14. I would love to meet you there.
I just wanted to get a little pimptimonious on your ass and tell you about some wondrous stuff I’ve run into in the last couple of weeks. Basically, these links are for the clicking, people.
Our lovely host at the Burlington screening of, you guessed it, Nerdcore Rising, was a Mr. Bill “mayor of Burlington” Simmon. The guy does everything and knows everyone in Vermont. He’s got a radio show called Poli Sci-Fi Radio where, along with co-host Steve Benen, he talks about politics and sci-fi. I was a guest on the show and a little nervous about it until I managed to maintain pseudo-sci-fi legitimacy with an over-zealous position on the movie Primer. Bill has also made a short film that’s on the festival circuit called “Digital Pamphleteer" that you can check out on youtube.
The Bill Simmonness doesn’t stop there because his wife Emily Stoneking casually hung out with us while knitting a dissected rat. She’s already been on BoingBoing because of a purely excellent, knitted, dissected frog. My camera doesn’t do her rat justice but I was the first to get an official bloggers look so forgive the photo work (below).
My next act of pimptimony involves another favorite find, Solipsistic Nation. Joseph from SN interviewed me for the site but forget that and just listen to Solipsistic for their smart smorgasbord of electronic music and artist interviews.
Also met a dude named Arthur who gave me a CD from his San Francisco-based band Blammos. They’re fun. More people should listen to them.
Remember that blog I wrote about Pangea Day? Well, you should see all the films! But if you only have time to see one, make it this one. It will blow your face off.
Finally, I’m on Twitter and it’s about time! Find and follow me, if you dare. For your convenience, the ID is NerdcoreRising.
Finally finally, Nerdcore Rising will be the Closing Night film at the DeadCENTER Film Festival in Oklahoma City on June 14. More details on that when I'm emotionally prepared to part with them.
That's all for now.
Your faithfullest NR:TM representative,
negin
Photos: 1) a license plate a la Burlington; 2) me and Bill Simmon on the Poli Sci Fi Radio Show; 3) a poor quality photo of a knitted dissected rat; 4) a completely random picture of me and Matthew Modine at Pangea Day - the real star is the hilarious dude behind us.
We did just screening in Burlington over the weekend and I have some dynamo shit to share about that experience but I'll get to that in my next post. (Here's a hint: biology-based knitting was involved - make of that statement what you will).
For now, I just wanted to give a brief shout out to Pangea Day. Here's the scoop, on Saturday, at 11am Pacific time, there will be a series of international short films screening at 45 million locations around the world in 6000 languages (5 points if you can determine which of those figures are inaccurate). I'm actually in Los Angeles right now at the Pangea Filmmaker Retreat where I will be doing "retreaty" things. Though, to be quite honest, the filmmakers I've met so far are super savvy international types that make really epic films about injustice and liberation and... other "epic-y" things so I'm not entirely sure if I belong among then. Alas, this is my chance to engage in the time-honored act of "fronting" like I belong.
Also, here’s an interesting note: who sits on the Advisory Board of this event? A little fella named J.J. Abrams. He totally picked me up from the airport. We talked about what would be happening in season 4 & 5 of Lost. I gave him a lot of good suggestions. The poor kid needs some help wrapping up the narrative elements to his critically acclaimed, universally loved television series. That’s okay, sometimes we all need a little help, right?
At any rate, I hope you feel inclined to check out the Pangea Day films and show some support because if Pangea succeeds, we will have world peace! Which could be really cool. Unless you’re a hobbyist war-monger, in which case, you’d have to pick up some other hobby. Like, maybe hobbyist peace-monger?
Very soon I will hurl at you the most bloggy Nerdcore Rising update ever.
Folks!
This weekend Nerdcore Rising had the distinct honor of screening at the Independent Film Festival of Boston. A motley crew of film festival peeps, roflcon internet celebs, software designers, and smarty-pants collegiates made up the audience for what was, one of the most unbelievably awesome weekends a movie could ever have.
HIGHLIGHTS
ITA Software:
Our sponsors invited us over to their offices where they violently force fed us delicious free food, evilly gave us ITA swag, and had the unmitigated gall to ask us to promote the movie to their 450 person company! What a bunch of assholes, right? Seriously though, if you know something about algorithms, you should visit their website, and try to weasel your way into getting a job there because I’ve never seen so many happy people… nor have I been privy to so many sys-op jokes.
Dude who paid for a hug:
You see, after screenings, we here at Nerdcore Rising shamelessly beg people to buy t-shirts. For $20 you can totally get a hardcorely awesome t-shirt that will not only cover half of your naked body, but will help get us out of our Bear Sterns-esque debt. One gentleman from the audience, who will hereafter be referred to as “The Sweetheart-est Nerdcore Rising Fan Ever” didn’t have enough on him to buy a t-shirt but instead gave me five dollars in exchange for a hug. The fact of the matter is, my current rate for hugs is $0, so accepting the five bones might be deemed morally suspect. But, to The Sweetheart-est Nerdcore Rising Fan Ever: I don’t know who you are or what you do but I promise your money will go to good use and I promise that your gesture made me feel really happy. Thank you, dude, wherever you are…
The After Party:
Some of our young friends couldn’t get in because of that thing where you have to be 21 to be in the presence of alcohol… and 21 year olds. So, that kinda sucked . But don’t worry, you didn’t really miss anything. It was only “totally cool” to see MC Frontalot & Prince Paul perform… it wasn’t “unbelievably cool” or anything.
Torrey’s Parents:
One of our associate editors, Torrey Townsend, has parents. And we got to meet them in Boston. And they were lovely! I just want to thank them for giving birth to their son, that kinda worked out really well for Nerdcore Rising.
WHAT IS NEXT?
Burlington, VT is next!! Do you live there? Do you wanna come see the movie? Here are some details Benefit Screening of Nerdcore Rising: For Vermont International Film Festival
@ Palace 9 on Shelburne Road
Sunday May 4th at 7pm
Tickets are available at Palace 9 More information
ADDITIONALS:
Also, a few weeks ago we got a really sweet post from the Humblest Blog On the Net. They usually review sci-fi books but the writer, Skwid decided to do a movie review slash a day-in-the-life-of-a-Nerdcore-Rising-screening type piece that’s fun and should be shared with you all:
PICTURES:
1) a random guy in front of an hilarious add from our sponsors 2) what Cambridge screening audiences (always) looks like 3) what a crowd happy to be listening to the Nerdcore hip hop looks like
A Negin Farsad Film/A Vaguely Qualified Production
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