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So, anywho, I was going to post this yesterday for the Illustration Friday theme “Talent” but missed it by THIS much. Soooo, since this week’s theme is “Yesterday”…

We recently launched Powers of Persuasion: The Inside Story of British Advertising by Winston Fletcher. Today, I am pleased to be able to bring you an original essay by Winston on the period where the British led the way in the advertising world. Check back tomorrow for photos from the party at London’s Somerset House.

Conventional wisdom has it that America is the home of advertising, where it all began. That is not quite right. Unquestionably America is the world’s largest advertising market, and American advertising agencies now dominate the world. But advertising began in ancient Athens (if not earlier), and advertising agencies started in Britain more than a century before they appeared in the USA. During 1970s and early 1980s British advertising led the world. It did so creatively – but it did so in other ways too, which underpinned the creativity, making it more effective and successful.

The emergence of Britain started slowly. At the Cannes Festival, which was then – and still is – the arbiter of global advertising creativity, Britain was outpaced by the USA throughout the 1960s, and in 1970 and 1971. Then the British climb began. In 1972 British and American advertising agencies took home an equal number of Gold Lions (4 apiece), and Britain won the cinema Grand Prix. The next year Britain won more awards than any other country, though most of these were Silvers.

In 1974 the British Gold rush really got going. That year Britain collected 18 Gold and Silver Lions and the Palme D’Or. In 1975 the festival moved to Venice for a year, and the British trade press headline simply read ‘Venice Goes British’. Come 1976 the festival returned to Cannes and the headline ran: ‘Britain Sweeps The Board’. The Brits had again pocketed the Palme D’Or, plus 10 of the 19 Gold Lions. In 1977 it was ‘Britain Comes Out Best Again’, with the Grand Prix for television and another 6 Gold Lions. Then, in 1978, Britain reached its zenith. The Brits won the Grand Prix for both television and cinema – a rare occurrence – and garnered a massive 80 Gold, Silver and Bronze Lions.

After 5 years at the top, there followed a couple of relatively fallow, but not wholly unsuccessful, years (1979 & 1980). But in 1981 the British made a come back (‘Britain Comes out Best Again’) with more Gold and Silver Lions than any other country. And Britain’s creative leadership continued throughout the first half of the new decade, when it collected 45 Gold Lions against America’s 23.

What caused this burgeoning of British advertising creativity? A combination of factors. Commercial television had begun in Britain in 1955, and for the first two decades British television advertising was dominated by American advertisers – particularly household cleanser and other packaged goods advertisers, whose approach to creativity was strictly formulaic. Every commercial had to abide by the ‘proven rules’. During the 1970s British advertisers started to become much more important in their home markets, and more confident, and allowed British creativity much more freedom. Creativity flowers in freedom. Moreover this occurred against the background of a recovery in Britain’s economic performance, after a long period of economic tribulation. But probably most important of all, there happened to be in London during those years a raft of quite exceptionally talented advertising people, who worked both as colleagues and as rivals to outperform each other creatively, in a highly charged competitive atmosphere.

Additionally, their creativity was underpinned by other developments which also helped British advertising leap ahead. More or less simultaneously, two London agencies (Boase Massimi Pollitt and J Walter Thompson London) invented a new system of campaign development called ‘account planning’. Account planning integrated research into the creative process in a way that had not been done before, and in a way that creative people found far more sympathetic than they had found earlier systems. Account planning spread slowly at first, but it is now generally accepted around the globe as the best way to develop new campaigns.

At the same time, in the mid-1970s. Britain developed the world’s best system of advertising self-regulation – a system that maximises creative freedoms within responsible constraints. And advertising began to be used more and more by British Governments to promote worthwhile social causes, from blood-giving to drink-less driving. Simultaneously Britain began to build what has become the world’s largest advertising archive, ‘The History of Advertising Trust.’ Out of this ferment of activity two commercial giants emerged: Saatchi & Saatchi and the WPP Group. Both joined the world’s advertising leaders, though Saatchi & Saatchi later stumbled and fell.

For the British advertising industry the second half of the 20th century was a heady era – when it reached peaks that it will probably never quite achieve again.

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Well, it's becoming more and more aparent to me that stretching this Nerdery thing out over seven days is proving to be a little difficult. So, I'm going to pull stuff out of thin air and see if it comes up Nerdery.

That's right. I'm pulling stuff outta the closet.

First off, this is the closet.

It's just to the right of Fridge Corner and just left of that long shelf where I display a bunch of my nerdery trinkets and what-not. And yes, there are the aforementioned autographed photos of Selma Hayek and Gina Gershon.

Stop laughing.

The closet, like the rest of my designed Nerdery, was one of the things I had in my head and wasn't sure if it existed. I thought it would be cool to have a closet with frosted glass panels. Why would that matter, you ask? Because then you can do this:

Yeah. Nerdy. I like being able to set the lights to my mood when I'm writing. When I was writing a suspense/murdery-type of story for NaNoWriMo a couple years back, it was REALLY dark material and I set the mood accordingly. All but one of the lights in the nerdery have dimmer switches on them. So, yeah, I can light it like a movie set.

Anyway...

Remember how some folks were saying that my desk was too clean and neat n' tidy? Well, feast your eyes on this:

And this:

This is not the closet of a neat and organized man. This is the closet of a dude who had no idea how to throw crap out. There's all kind of garbage in there, including:

- a bunch of electronics chargers
- a laptop that weighs as much as a sedan
- a guitar I never learned to play
- a tripod
- boxes of envelopes for agent queries and their subsequent rejections
- a shredder (not the one that fights mutant turtles)
- a binder with Space Fact inserts stuck into it

You get the idea. So, for laughs, I pulled out a bunch of stuff to see if it's nerdy enough to qualify for the week. I'm guessing...yeah. It is.

This is a box appropriately labeled 'FILM STUFF.' Sadly, it's not the only one in the house. I've got two or three more in the garage and it's loaded with short films, storyboards, scripts and all kinds of garbage from my film-making days. This one actually has an old ancient Rondo Cinematic 8mm camera in the box.

This potpourri of stuff is: a set list from the May 6, 2005 Tegan & Sara show at The Quest. A Playmobil Firefighter that I just 'had to have' and a framed original drawing by Fastner/Larson entitled 'Sinta.' I got it at a nerdy Comic Convention (yes, the one where I dressed like Han Solo) and I thought it was cool since I wrote a bunch of twisted Xmas stories. Somehow it's not appropriate to hang up anywhere. Weird.

Next to that, in the huge ill-fitting frame is a drawing by dude name Teddy Torres-Ruiz drew. He had it up for auction during a March of Dimes fundraiser and I battled some dude to the bitter end to win it. I just love the style and he used to do artist renditions of some of my characters that just brought tears to my eyes. I had to have it. I'm ashamed that I haven't figured out what to do with it, so in the closet it remains.

When my grandpa died, he left all of his old books to my dad. Since I seem to be the most literate one in my family, my dad thought it best if I take them from him. These things are WAY old and eventually, when the Nerdery shelves are built, I'll put them up and display them proudly. Crazy thing? There are two storage bins full of them!

It's crazy to look through the bins and see what sort of things people were into reading back then. While I'm not sure that I'll ever sit down and read any of them (mostly in fear of wrecking them) I'm fascinated by the titles and subject matter of some of Grandpa's old books. Check it:

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Grandpa was a big Edgar Rice Burroughs fan. This is just a small selection of the ERB books he had in his collection. Wow. The Monster Men...hmmm, maybe I will have to read that one at some point.

A couple more titles from the boxes. I thought The Speedwell Boy and Their Ice Racer sounded like a heckuva title. Shoot, something with that catchy of a title would even sell today, right? Isn't that right, Bomba the Jungle Boy? Hey, don't know Bomba. The dude had a SERIES of books written about him.

One of the coolest things about Grandpa's books were that each and everyone has his name written in his hand on the front page. I actually found one that looked like it was a gift...FROM A GIRL!!!

Hey, Grandpa...that wasn't Grandma's name. Hmm...just think, if Doris and Earle had actually ended up together, I wouldn't have happened. Crazy when one thinks about it, you know. Ahem...this concludes the introspective portion of Nerdery Week.

The End Is Near! Nerdery Week closes the doors tomorrow! Be there...or you know, catch up whenever, yo.

This will be my last 'Nerdery' post as I won't have time tomorrow. I'm off to a birthday party for a 1 yr-old and a 3 yr-old. Joy to the world.



Okay, this is a corner of my little nerdery. The box files contain manuscripts for some of my novels and the A4 (fullscap) notebook on the top of them is for a very bad, never completed early attempt at a screenplay titled 'A vampire is stalking me' - good grief... The top tray contains notes & the uncompleted manuscript of my NaNo attempt 'Fractured Wings', plus other assorted nonsense.




Okay, here we have a printer - wow, amazing - seriously, is that it? Ooh, and a picture of Spike (James Marsters) from Buffy - now that is nerdy. And look, the Winchester brothers of a few days ago without a flash obscuring their loveliness.




My noticeboard - YAY!!! Okay, first off I so need a new noticeboard and new pictures. As I said the other day I often use pictures cut from magazines to inspire characters. To the right we have 2 black and white pictures of the Gregory sisters from 'Last Seen Drowning' which is set in the grand old Gregory Hotel. The other pictures are for 'The Maiden Phoenix' (currently in redraft - it's so long...) and its unfinished sequel 'Dead Girl Rising'.

We also have two MacDonalds dudes - came free with 'Happy Meals', a little angel saved from a Christmas card and an alien I got for entering a short screenplay competition run by the Sci-Fi Channel a few years back.



We say goodbye, with a view from the doorway. I told you the place was small. On parting you gain an added extra of my recycle bin which somehow made it into the photo... And some very disorganised shelves.

Thanks to TKT for thinking up Nerdery Week - been fun checking them all out.

And the beat goes on...

Well, this will instantly align me with the millions of other nerds out there with similar tastes. You've probably gotten a whiff of it with some of the earlier entries for Nerdery Week.

My name is Thomas...and I am a Star Wars nerd.

*sigh*

Truth be told, I've been a geek/nerd/dork for Star Wars since I was a wee lad and saw it in the theatre with my dad. I was 4 years old and it pretty much changed my life. The problem is, it never changed it back.

*rim shot*

While I'll never profess to be a 'deluxe SW nerd' (I've never read the books outside of the original 6 movies, nor do I want to acknowledge they exist) and I don't have every single thing with the image of Star Wars emblazoned on it (cereal boxes, toothpaste, Chewbacca Depends Undergarments), I do have to admit to dressing up as Han Solo once at a Comic Convention.

Yes. Blaster and all.

But...I never, um...tried to use The Force to get myself out of a predicament.

Okay, well, there was that one time I was hanging upside down from an apple tree in winter, a la Luke Skywalker in Hoth. And yes, there was a flashlight (lightsaber) lying in the snow juuuuust out of reach. But, er... I was eight years old or something. I think.

Okay. I'm a giant nerd. But heck, this is our week to celebrate, wounds and all.

Welcome to the Star Wars portion of my Nerdery.

First off, my shelves. These are located to the left of my desk where all the 'magic' happens.

Let's punch in for a closer look, eh?

Here's the original foursome and by original, I'm not saying they're from the original Kenner line way back in the 70's. Nope. These are the new-fangled Star Wars figures that came out a little over 1o years ago. I was a fool when I was a youngster and sold nearly all of my old Star Wars stuff. I had gotten tired of it, so I sold the stuff at rock-bottom prices in a garage sale. Almost immediately I regretted it and spent too much time and money buying all the original smaller figures back. I think I've got all but 4 of them.

Anyway, here is Darth Vader, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and my favorite Obi Wan Kenobi. I'm such a nerd, I still have an unopened OWK in my steamer trunk in the other room.

Side note: I'm pissed that Han Solo can't hold his well-known blaster properly. How much does that stink?

Here we have 4 characters from the 'it should've been much cooler' flick The Phantom Menace.

Young Obi Wan Kenobi (complete with Padawan braid)

Darth Maul (who was the best part of the movie)

Queen Amidala (who cost like $2 at Kaybee Toys when they were going out of business)

And the suckiest guy in the group, Young Anakin Skywalker. I bought Ani on eBay for literally $1. No one else bothered to bid against me. Now I know why. Must've been all those midichloreans in his bloodstream.

2nd shelf down brings us to my favorite characters in the movies: The Bounty Hunters. Something about aliens and robots out hunting other people/Jedis/smugglers that just does something for me.

From the left we have Ponda Baba (that's 'Walrus Man' to my generation) complete with removable left arm, a result of stepping to Alec Guiness on Tatooine. "He doesn't like you. I don't like you either..."

Next we've got Zam Wessel . She was in the worst of all of the Star Wars movies: Attack of the Clones. I still thought she was pretty cool. Almost as cool as Princess Leia as Boussh.

Next in line is Bossk. I don't know why, but I always liked ol' B. He was a lizard who had no business holding a blaster, but he looked mean and greasy. I was sold.

Well, you know who that is next to him, right? (If you said Zuckuss, you're dead wrong) That's 4-LOM which is an inside joke in that his name means 'For Love or Money.' You know, that's what former protocol droid bounty hunters do it for. Love or... Nevermind.

(Okay, when I step away for a moment and re-read what I've just written, I can see that I am a tried and true nerd. Just sayin..')

Hey! There's the grand-daddy of all bounty hunters and snack of the Saarlac, Boba Fett. He's much cooler than the shabby version offered in the 80's. For one thing, his head is proportionate and for another, he talks. My favorite line? "He's no good to me dead."

Next to him is probably the least frightening of all bounty hunters, Dengar. He looks like a turd with a bandage on his head, but I still like the guy. You know, just looking at him, that he never had a chance catching up with Han Solo. Still, you gotta give the guy props for trying.

That tall droid next to him? That's IG-88. He was a hard one to come by and I was worried that he was going to be a crappy addition to the original Bounty-Hunter-Let's-Get-Han-Solo gang. In the movies he's super tall. When he came in the box...he wasn't. Thankfully, the geniuses who designed him equipped ol' IG with extendable legs. Proper!

And next to him is...(if you said 4-LOM you're wrong!) Zuckuss. Believe it or not, he was my first bounty hunter. Why? 'Cause he was so darn cheap on eBay.

So that takes care of the shelf. I looked through the nerdery archives and found these two items sitting in the closet with nowhere to be.

They were priced to move at Target, so they came home with me. It's a pocket-sized Bossk and Princess Leia in Endor Gear. I still haven't decided if I'll open 'em or not. A true nerd wouldn't, but that's never stopped me before. We'll see. I still think it's weird that they redesigned the figures, but put them on the same ol' cards they had in the 80's. Say what???

My little brother bought me this weird thing a few years back. I think it's supposed to be Jango Fett (you know, Boba's dad?) but he's made out of old machinery pieces and gears and stuff. He swivels on ball-bearings and it sporting Jango's dual blasters, but I'm not sure. I think he's pretty cool, but definitely ramps up my nerd cred a bit, dontcha think?

And now for the crown jewel of the Star Wars stuff in my nerdery.

I found this at an antique store in Minneapolis. It's a picture of whiny Luke Skywalker alongside his mentor and all-around bad-ass with a beard, Obi Wan Kenobi. If you click the picture or check out the closer-up shot I took, you'll see why this is so garsh-darn cool...and nerdy.

It's signed by the man himself, the late, great Sir Alec Guinness. It says: Good wishes above his name. Now, I have absolutely no way of authenticating that this is his real signature, but I have seen other items with his Johnny Hancock on it and it's pretty much spot-on. Regardless, I've convinced myself that it's the real deal and for that it hangs proudly on my nerdery wall...

...above my autographed picture of Salma Hayek and Gina Gershon. (maybe later)

So, there you have it: all the Star Wars stuff that I could find with the confines of my nerdery. I wish I could say that's all the Star Wars crap I've got, but I can't. There's a steamer trunk in another room that's contains more treaures, but hey...it's not Steamer Trunk Week. It's all about the Nerderies, y'all.

Check out these new updates and what-not from the Get-Nerdy-All-Stars:

Dan @ This Man's Blog - Muses about 'The King of Kong'
Matt @ Blue Birdland - Nerdery: A capella Style
Caryle @ Caryle's Corner - Comic Books!
Catherine J. Gardner/Phoenix Rendell @ The Poisoned Apple - A Nerd's Album Collection

And in case you missed 'em...

Wendy @ The Musings of Wendy Withers - Nerdery 2008, Day 3 (includes a video!)
Uvulapie @ Uvulapie and His Amazing Hillbillies - The Nerdery
Angela @ The Bookshelf Muse - Angela's Nerdery
Unhinged - Where the Magic Happens (or not)
Susan Sandmore - It's the Nerdery!

And there's more...tomorrow!!! Strong finish Nerdery Dwellers! Let's do this!

Woo-Hoo - Nerdery Day 3 for me... And first off we are taking a revisit to yesterday's bookcase (hey, bare with me, my nerdery is way small).




Okay - the reason for this picture is the five books piled on top of each other that are my 'supposed' next in line to be read books.

They are: Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman (which you cannot see as my camera flash wiped the book out), Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, The Cosmic Puppets by Philip K Dick, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, and The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. Of course, I still can't decide which I want to read first...




Next to the bookcase we have some of my music. Some old LPs - which I haven't played in forever. They include 'Aspects of Love' the musical (oh, the shame), Yentl (can it get any worse), lots of Fleetwood Mac albums (love those guys), and Madonna... And having a quick flick through them I think I am about to be crowned the Queen of all Nerds, or perhaps just labelled sad, there is a Debbie Gibson album. WHAT!!! Seriously, even I'm shocked.

Then we have my CDs - lots of Bon Jovi in there. And in the three box files we have the small press magazines my stories have appeared in, and the bottom box contains the 2nd draft of The Maiden Phoenix.



What do we have here? My PG Tips Chimp (as in came free with teabags - how British), a little bit of Kiefer, three Willow Tree figures (I collect these figures and they are all over my house) - of which I particularly love the centre one as she looks so free, a lighthouse, and some books - the top one being a book about Urban Legends.

Another day done. Debbie Gibson aside, I'm still not feeling like a true nerd.

Dang! Is it already Day 4? What the heck am I going to do with myself once Nerdery Week is in our rearview? How ever will we cope?

Somehow, I think we'll manage.

You know, I don't think I'll promise that this installment will be shorter, because, let's face it...they never are. So, pack a lunch or a snack and let's take another peek at TKT HQ or, as we affectionately call it: THE NERDERY.

Today, I'm going to take you to Fridge Corner.

You're thinking: Hey's it's just a little corner in the nerdery. This won't take long. No sweat.

Right.

Well, as you probably surmised, this is the entry to the Nerdery. It's kind of a little nook where I've got concert posters, the fridge and a couple other little nuggets of nerdy goodness. I tried to shoot it with the desk corner there for perspective, so you can sort of get your bearings. Dang. I'm gonna have to shoot a video, aren't I?

First up is my framed poster for the Fountains of Wayne show I saw at First Avenue back in June of 2007. Dang. Has it been that long already? It's hard to see, but I'm a nerd in that I frame my concert ticket right in the frame whenever possible. What's cool about this poster is that it was a limited run of 250. At least, that's what I was told.

If you look past the door and right above the little fridge, you'll come across a trio of concerts pretty much rocked my world. Starting from...

The Top - Well, here's where I lose all street cred and admit that I'm a pretty die-hard Bjork fan. If you only know her as 'that wacky broad that wore the swan dress' then...SHAME ON YOU! I won't get into how much of a musical and visual genius she is (including the swan dress, haters!) but I will tell you that my friend Dirty and I went on a road trip to see her at Red Rocks. That's right, Colorado. I'm not a religious fellow, but that experience was, well...religious. This poster was a limited edition, too. Blah, blah, blah...

Bottom Left - The greatest band ever, which you probably already knew is Eels. This would be show #2 for me. This was the infamous 'Eels With Strings' tour where frontman E (Mark Oliver Everett) toured with a 4 woman string ensemble and stripped down all his rockin' tunes to something completely different. This poster was hard to come by. I actually pestered the Pantages Theater days later until they said: "Fine. Come and get the @#%*-in' poster." Persistence pays, kids.

Bottom Right - There was a time when Nelly Furtado was more hippy than she was pop-y and sort of like every other Britney Spears wannabe. Anyway, this was that show. She was young, new and had something to prove. Legend has it that during this show at The Quest she was sick as a dog. She'd sing two songs, jump backstage, barf her guts out and come back to sing some more. Awesome. Also, I was in the front row and she slapped my hand. Like a groupie, I didn't wash it for like 2 hours or something. Also, I got one of her guitar picks. You read that right: She ACTUALLY plays the guitar!

Fun fact about the fridge...it was actually an after thought. When my dad (What up, Bruce!) and I sat down and planned how to make this unfinished room rock hardcore, we never even thought about a fridge. As we were sheetrocking and wiring the joint, I got thirsty. I thought about how awesome it would be if I didn't have to go upstairs to the fridge to get liquid refreshment. Thus, the fridge cubby-hole was born. I'd love to say it was an easy thing to build, but it actually took us a long time to get it right. Well worth the trouble...right, Dad? Er...Dad?

Now, if you turn to your right from the fridge, you'll see this small little wall. Of course, since there's space on there, I gots to put more crap up, right? Right?

Answer: Right.

Let's take a closer look!

Okay, okay... So I'm not as obsessive about Bjork as say a certain Iowan is with Madonna *cough Dan cough cough* but this puts me on the map a little. You see, I spotted this thing on Ebay a number of years back and I had to have it. Had. To. Have. It. It's got a CD single of one of my favorite songs in there (Bachelorette) and if you squint, you can see the Icelandic Princess signed it, too. I got into a MAJOR bidding war with someone and well, it's...uh...mine. Final price? I don't want to talk about it.

Now despite the sack of garbage on legs in brown featured in the picture, this is one of my favorite concert-going experiences ever. I got to see Tracy Bonham (she sang 'Mother, Mother'...yes, you've heard it) in concert. The crazy thing? There was a typo in the ad for the show and like, literally 20 people showed up for it. Thankfully it was in the Ascot Room (which is part of The Quest), so it wasn't totally humilating for her. I scored two guitar picks, her set list and another nerdy fan was nice enough to take my picture with Ms. Bonham AND e-mail me the picture from her camera. Now that's value! She signed it To Kingsley. You probably figured out that's my middle name and (another fun fact!) is what my closest friends call me.

Another year, another Eels show. Actually, this is a poster from the first Eels gig I saw. My roadtrippin' concert-goin' friend Dirty and I hit this one together in Madison, Wisconsin at a sweet place called Luther Blues. Don't look for it, it's not there (always wanted to say that), but man...what a blast. E came out onto the stage on the shoulders of one of his bandmates, playing the harmonica. Oh, and did I mention that he walked through the standing room only crowd? Awesome. Anyway, I scored a guitar pick from the man himself and upon returning to Minneapolis, I realized I didn't have a poster to remember the show by. A quick call to Madison took care of that. Heck, she even sent me some extra tickets with a note that said: Thanks for coming out to Luther's! Come back again soon! Dang, I wish I could.

I should apologize for the poor, poor quality of this picture. You see, one of the nerderies downfalls is the lack of a light right above Fridge Corner. I did all I could to make it look all nice n' neat for y'all, but I've failed you. Friends? Anyway, this is a set list from the Jem show I saw back in 2004. She was in the same small room where I saw Tracy Bonham, but the crowd was a bit bigger for ol' Jem. Again, it was one of those shows where you won't see her in a small venue like this again. She went on to have her songs in all kinds of shows (Grey's Anatomy, The O.C., etc...) so she's gotten along famously. Jem was cool enough to talk with me, compliment me on my name (why thank you!) and sign her set list for me. I wish she'd hurry up with that follow-up album, though. And in case you were thinking it: Yes, Jem is truly outrageous.

Final stretch, I swear. This is the little guy I've got above my door. He's a stone face of some sort and I can't remember what his deal is. I think he's some wind god or something like that, but I've always had him hovering above the door of my respective nerdery/workspace/garbage dump. This picture doesn't do him justice. You'll have to come over to see it, I guess.

Lastly, hanging on my nerdery door knob are these two items. The top one, is my baseball cap from the Woodbury Fire Department. I never wear it. I look like a complete a-hole in baseball hats, but it's there for decoration. It's actually the 2nd generation hat and I'm not a big fan of the design. I think it looks kinda wussy. Below that is the free Resident Evil: Extinction action bag that came with the purchase of the DVD. It's hardly big enough to hold a lunch let alone any zombie survival gear, but whateva...

Whew. No wonder I don't feel like editing after each Nerdery Week daily installment (but I do anyway!) I'm happy to consider myself over the hump at this point. I think by Day 7 we'll be looking at the dust bunnies under my futon. Stick around for that, maniacs!

And hey....check it. Our numbers are growing! New nerdery additions include...

The Musings of Wendy Withers
Uvulapie and His Amazing Hillbillies
Angela - The Bookshelf Muse
Unhinged

And, of course our returning cast of favorites with new updates:

Dan - This Man's World - Spiders and Madge-tastic
Matt - Blue Birdland - The Oaks
CG/PR - The Poisoned Apple - Her Bookcase

Am I missing anyone? Hey, you...the lurker! There's still time to get in on history. Don't let your nerdery fade into obscurity...bring it.

We wanna see the goods!

Another day in the Nerdery... This bookcase sits directly behind my chair (in that if I get excited and wheel back I hit it - hard).

I don't think any of this is nerdy at all. Correct me if I'm wrong.



Okay - so what are these two shelves all about. On the top we have Stephen King's 'On Writing' of course, and the 'Complete Works of Shakespeare' (and though the bookmark 'the purple tassle thing' appears to be at the end of the book, I have so not read that much). On top of the book marked 'Animal' we have a collection of SFX magazines all dedicated to Buffy the Vampire Slayer - so we're getting a little bit nerdy I guess.

On the shelf below we have Neil Gaiman's 'The Wolves in the Walls' - excellent PB, and 'The Annotated Fairy Tales' which I keep meaning to read. My house is full of books I haven't got around to yet. The other books are poetry / The Dictionary of Witchcraft / The Dictionary of Superstitions. Jeez, can you handle the excitement.





Okay, this is my HUGE (ahem!) collection of screenplays. I will get around to finishing my screenplay some day.

The unseen shelf below is full of dictionaries - ie of World Religions, of Slang, of Nursery Rhymes, of Saints, of English Surnames, English Place-Names, New Words, Idioms, Phrase & Fable - I went through a phase of buying dictionaries... Oh and a video (I am so behind the times) box set of ANGEL to complete the nerdiness.

And to end with - a couple more people have joined in. Check out the following Nerdery's: -

Susan Sandmore
Jeffrey Jingles
Wendy Withers

So, I'm going to try and make this not so long and convoluted. I think if I keep up the pace I'm at I'm gonna run out of nerdery to document.

I thought I'd take you in for a closer look at the shelf on my desk and all the nerdiness piled up there. Tomorrow we're going to look at 'Fridge Corner' and I have no idea what the plan is for the rest of the week.

We'll wing it, yo.
Okay, starting from the left hand side and working out way to the right...

1. Children's Writer's & Illustrated Market for 2007 book. I decided about 30 minutes after buying it that it will be my last. Seriously. It's such a waste of money and it's basically outdated the moment you pull it out of the Border's bag. I have some rejection letters and a book of stamps stuck in there for good measure.

2. The 3 A.M. Epiphany it's a book by Brian Kiteley that's designed to give you a 'nudge' in terms of writing. I thought it was a cool-looking book and liked some of the exercises in there. Since I haven't needed a nudge in a long time, I haven't done a single exercise. Still, it's good to know it's there...just in case.

3. The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks. Gee...big surprise that I've got this sitting in my nerdery. It's everything you need to know in preparation for the zombie apocalypse. I read his other zombie book World War Z. Um...yeah. You notice THAT book isn't present here.

4. Parents Wanted by George Harrar. A critique partner and friend let me read this book a while back and I REALLY need to get it back to her. I finished it and thought it was good, but didn't really feel much for the main character. Well written, though.

5. American History X DVD. This is from a friend at work. We talked about scenes in movies where people had the opportunity to 'taste the curb' (don't ask) and he brought this for me to watch. Haven't watched it yet, but I plan on it. Soon. Really.

6. Journals that I haven't really written much in. You'd think a writer-nerd like myself would have LOADS of journals just filled with ideas. Uh...nope, not really. I mean, I've scratched out some stuff on some pages, but most of my ideas stay in my head, leaving little room for much else. Just ask my wife.

7. Sony PSP & Ratchet & Clank Size Matters Game Did I ever mention what a short attention span I have? It's sinister. To that end, I hardly go anywhere without some sort of portable entertainment. Truly. If we're sitting somewhere for too long and I'm not actively DOING SOMETHING I start to go crazy. In these times of trouble, I break out the PSP. Yes, I'm 12.

8. Big Ol' Pile of Writing Stuff For all those folks that think my nerdery is too neat, I tend to agree. This is the pile where I put works in progress, critiques from my industrious critique partners and any other thing that I'm going to get to later. If I had my way, I'd have it all spread out everywhere. Actually, that's not true. I need some order. Sue me.

9. DVD Camcorder Battery I'm not sure how this got there. I've been meaning to charge it since, like, forever, but I keep forgetting. Sorry.


10. Cobra Commander Not nearly as cool as the original CC, but I saw this reissue in the store and had to have him. I sort of like him better than the hooded one anyway. Also, I love that you can still have him carry his pistol on his back.

11. Electric Chair Marv Probably one of my most favorite nerdy action figures of all time. It's Marv from the comic book Sin City. There's a switch you can push down on to give him the 'juice' and he says: Is that the best you can do? Pansies... Also, his eyes light up and the whole thing shakes like he's being electricuted. Triple awesome with a side of wicked.

12. Zartan My all time favorite GI Joe action figure from years past is/was Zartan. This is another reissue but I couldn't resist. He comes with a backpack that's got a mask on so he can be in disguise. The funny thing? His outfit totally screams ZARTAN! A goofy mask isn't going to disguise him all that well.

13. Sigma 6 Snake Eyes In a move that I still don't understand, they release some GI Joes with sort of an anime bent to them. One of the figures was this guy. He's got a checklist of cool (nerdiness) built in: Uzi (check), sword (check), dogtags (check), quiet yet deadly disposition (check and checkmate)

14. New Goblin Easily one of the worst (along with Lucy from Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe) action figures I own is this guy. While I loved the character from Spiderman 3, I was disappointed with how lame the figure was. Despite it all, he still gets to air-board his way onto my desk...and into our hearts.

15. The Tatooine Gang Now don't get me wrong, I still have all the old 1970's Star Wars guys, but they're all locked up in a cryogenic chamber beneath our house. In the meantime, I have to settle for the newer guys I picked up. I don't know what it is, but I love me some sand-dwelling Star Wars guys, especially the Tusken Raider. Anyway, there's a Jawa in there, that weird Dome Droid and the R2 unit without the bad motivator.

16. Fat Bastard The best part about this guy? He came in a box that said 'Fat Man.' I guess the stores didn't want to carry a figure with the word 'bastard' on it. He's got a pull string and says: Frisky are we? I'm dead sexy, look at my sexy body! Oh I got your mojo now, Sonny Jim! He weighs like 15 pounds and is always watching me while I type. Even now...

17. Abbey Chase I've got a thing for 'chicks with guns' so this was an easy sell. This is Abbey Chase from the short run comic series Danger Girl. Not sure what else to say other than I love that she's standing in front of some ancient ruins and is ready to pop caps on any suckas who front.

18. Snake Eyes When one Snake Eyes isn't enough, a second one can't hurt. Another reissue from the GI Joe 25th Anniversay series. He was too cool to pass up.

19. Boba Fett vs Sarlaac I'm pretty sure I'm the only Star Wars nerd who likes Boba Fett (insert sarcastic tone) so this called to me from the Target clearance shelf. He was actually my first 'official' addition to the desk shelf. I love the idea that this cool character had a fighting chance against the Sarlaac pit. As Caryle mentioned in a comment a few days ago, he's probably still being digested by that thing. Sigh.

20. Cop Car Decepitcon from Transformers Here's where I pull the lame card. I don't remember this guy's name from the movie, but I like the cop car anyway. The real reason? Instead of saying 'To Serve & Protect' along the side, it says 'To Punish & Enslave.' Full disclosure: I thought the Transformers movie was lame. I actually fell asleep during the 'exciting' conclusion. At one point Shia LaBouf was holding some dumb glowing orb and the next minute they were tossing Megatron into the drink. Zzzzz...

Anyway, that'll wrap up Day 3 for me. I'm pleased to announce some new Nerderies have joined the fray! Visit 'em and show 'em your love!

Susan Sandmore
Catherine J. Gardner/Phoenix Rendell

Along with our founding fathers/mothers:

Dan - This Man's World
Matt - Blue Birdland
Caryle - Caryle's Corner
Jeff - May the Force Be With Y'all

Nerdery Week continues...TOMORROW!

Okay, so I've tidied up a wee bit and have decided to join in 'Nerdery Week' along with Thomas Kingsley Troupe - his space is so much cooler than mine, but he has inspired me to get more nerdy things for my space...

Also taking part in Nerdery Week are:

Dan
Blue Birdland
Carylerg

Apologies for my bad, bad pictures - my digital camera is ancient. Okay, so here we go, picture number one of where I do my writing stuff...



My desktop background is of course the gorgeous Winchester Brothers from the TV series 'Supernatural' and to the upper right you'll see the delectable Kiefer Sutherland. On the stand (again, apologies for the quality of the pictures) we have an old punch cartoon by HM Bateman titled 'The Man Who Paid Off His Overdraft' - totally my ambition, and attached to that is a poem I wrote last summer.

On the three side shelves we have: Top Shelf - my ideas for short stories; Middle Shelf - My ideas for Novels (I think I already mentioned way, way back that I have notebooks full of ideas); Bottom Shelf - The first draft of the Poisoned Apple and my screenplay 'The Deathwatch Maiden'.

And here is a slightly closer look...



Okay, a slightly better view of the Winchester Boys with a lovely flash mark. Two pens - love my pens. The coloured pad jotting out by the screen is where I note down where I've sent my short stories out to and whether they have been rejected or accepted.




Bad, bad picture this one. On the shelf we have (from left to right and all may not be clear). A glass bear saying 'It's a girl' which I bought when my niece Amy was born. In front of that we have a tiny little wooden bear which my aunt bought my years and years, forever ago. Behind them we have Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. She is standing next to my cool San Francisco Calendar, and of course, like a bookend, Jack from TNBC... In front of the calendar are two cool little angry looking vegetable dudes.

Deep pause... the HORROR card reads ' The escalating sense of fear that Stephen King has already thought of your story'. We then have two Rugrats figures - love those guys. And then a wee Japanese wooden doll.

The postcard lower down is a gorgeous scene of Venice. And the picture way over to the left is of Neve Campbell. When I'm writing a horror novel, I tend to use pictures to inspire the characters and that picture inspired 'Nestor Godium' in my I'll-never-finish-it 'Dead Girl Rising'...

That's all for today... Read the rest of this post