Getting My Geek On
Apr. 5th, 2011 09:56 amHey, did you read that piece Patton Oswalt wrote for Wired Magazine a few months back about the death and rebirth of Geek Culture?
In a nut shell: Being a Geek used to be something to be proud of because it took hard work and dedication, but now thanks to The Internet anyone can become an expert on any geeky subject in a matter of minutes. TV shows and movies that were obscure and rare are now streaming on Netflix ready to be consumed at your convenience. Patton Oswalt claimed that because of this, Geek Culture as we knew it is dead and it has now become the main stream.
I heartily disagree! Sure, most of my geekly pursuits have become main stream (Sci-Fi, Comic Books, Fantasy RPG, etc), but once all that information became readily available to me via the internet? I found NEW geekly things to keep me fascinated! Stuff that you can't just read the wiki article on and suddenly pass as an expert on the subject.
So I decided to compile a list of my currently Geek Obsessions that are outside the main stream. No one is going to make a movie based on these hobbies, trust me!
In a nut shell: Being a Geek used to be something to be proud of because it took hard work and dedication, but now thanks to The Internet anyone can become an expert on any geeky subject in a matter of minutes. TV shows and movies that were obscure and rare are now streaming on Netflix ready to be consumed at your convenience. Patton Oswalt claimed that because of this, Geek Culture as we knew it is dead and it has now become the main stream.
I heartily disagree! Sure, most of my geekly pursuits have become main stream (Sci-Fi, Comic Books, Fantasy RPG, etc), but once all that information became readily available to me via the internet? I found NEW geekly things to keep me fascinated! Stuff that you can't just read the wiki article on and suddenly pass as an expert on the subject.
So I decided to compile a list of my currently Geek Obsessions that are outside the main stream. No one is going to make a movie based on these hobbies, trust me!
- 1970's Slurpee Cups
- Promotional glassware
- Vintage American Christmas-themed animation
- Abandoned theme parks (kind of main stream, but has to be experienced rather than read about)
- SCTV (one book written about it, a hundred different voices claiming that they got it all wrong)
- Head Of The Class (sit-com)