Month: March 2012

ECCC Programming Question: What do you want to hear at the Awesome Hour?

Posted on 27 March, 2012 By Wil

I've been working on Big Bang Theory for the last week. We tape tonight, and tomorrow I immediately start work on an audiobook*. The upshot of this is that I won't have a lot of time to build a setlist for my Awesome Hour at Emerald City Comicon this weekend.

So this is where you come in. I need your help, whether you're going to be there or not. What do you want to hear me perform? I haven't been able to write very much new material since the last ECCC, to I'm leaning toward some stories about gaming, and maybe something from the deep archives, like something out of Dancing Barefoot or Just A Geek.

Please, please, please leave me a comment here so I have some ideas about what you'd like to see me perform if I was on a stage in front of you. If there's a particular post from my blog (especially if it's one of the older ones) leave me a link. I think it would be really cool to build an entire "fan created" setlist.

*It's the first nonfiction book I've done that I didn't write; I'm not sure I can say what it is, but it's going to be a lot of fun to read it.

On the set of Stand By Me

Posted on 25 March, 2012 By Wil

This picture was originally posted on Tumblr by thefactory-:

You know that montage when we’re walking back home, near the end of the movie, and we go by in silhouette during sunset? It’s what they used as inspiration for the poster.

This picture was taken when we filmed that little bit. That thing we’re sitting on is called a Chapman Crane, and it’s a really neat piece of film equipment that allows for those big, beautiful, dramatic, sweeping panoramic shots you see in movies.

It’s a little dangerous, though, because there are weights and things on the end of that arm to perfectly counterbalance the weight of the camera and whoever is sitting next to it. More than once in film history, someone has stepped off the crane before it’s been rebalanced, and, finding itself a hundred or more pounds heavier at one end than the other, the crane has turned into a very dangerous catapult.

The way I remember it, we kept asking Rob Reiner if we could sit on it when the shot was over, because the idea of sitting up in the sky next to the camera was so awesome, and he eventually said yes, because he was like that.

We were so excited to sit on this thing, and so excited to ride it up as high as it would go — it seemed like a hundred feet, but I’m sure it was more like thirty — but we had to wear seatbelts, promise to sit still and not step off the thing until it was balanced. I don't remember what everyting looked like from up there, but I do remember someone deciding to give the slate to River (who, of course, has his serious face on, like he always did) because it was a fantastic publicity photo opportunity.

I’m glad someone took this picture, because it reminded me of a joyful moment that I haven’t thought of in over a quarter century.

The Force Will Be With Him…

Posted on 24 March, 2012 By Wil

My nephew will be joining Team Humans sometime in July, so today we're having a baby shower for my little sister (who, at 33, isn't little, bit if you're a big brother or sister, you know what I mean.)

My brother in law is awesome, even though he's Dallas Cowboys SuperFan Number One Top Guy Forever™. I know that my nephew (who I suggested should be named Batman, but will probably end up with a muggle name that's more socially appropriate) will get plenty of sportsball in his life, so it has fallen to me, his favorite uncle Wil, to share with him The Way of the Geek.

I'm starting him off early (and right) by giving the following gifts* at the shower today:

I'm pretty sure he'll be on Team Sheldon, even though his favorite uncle is on Team Evil Wil Wheaton.

By the time he's ready to use a computer, it'll probably be controlled with his mind… but this way he can confuse the 2 year-olds of the future, or at least holler at them to get off his lawn.

I'm pretty sure they'd kick me out of the Star Trek family if I didn't get this for him.

I had this amazing fantastic idea to get him a Twilight Zone pinball machine that could live at our house, so he had something awesome to play with whenever he came over to visit, but Anne shot that down for some stupid reason that doesn't make any sense at all.

*I went nuts at ThinkGeek, for those of you who are wondering.

This is my new show, Tabletop

Posted on 19 March, 2012 By Wil

Last summer, Felicia Day asked me if I wanted to develop a show together for her new premium YouTube channel, Geek and Sundry.

Spoiler alert: I said yes.

She asked me if I wanted to do a show about gaming, maybe a review show or something like that.

"I think it would be more fun do something where we play games," I said. Then, the light bulb went off.

"Oh my god," I said, "What if we did something that was like Celebrity Poker meets Dinner for Five, where we got interesting people we know together for tabletop games?!"

Felicia thought it sounded awesome, I was really excited about the idea, and we got to work. It took a few months to develop, and in December we finally shot our first block of episodes. In February, we got the band back together and shot another block of episodes, and just last week, I finished locking down the final edits for all the shows (that's why I couldn't come to Wondercon on Friday.)

In season one of the show, we play games like Settlers of Catan, The Last Night on Earth, Munchkin, Small World, and Alhambra. Some of the players include Grant Imahara, Sean Plott (better known as Day[9]), Dodger Leigh, Ryan Higa, Beth Riesgraf, Phil Lamarr, Morgan Webb, Garfunkle and Oats, Veronica Belmont, and Colin Ferguson.

My ulterior motive with Tabletop is to show by example how much fun it is to play boardgames. I want to show that Gamers aren't all a bunch of weirdoes who can't make eye contact when they talk to you, and that getting together for a game night is just as social and awesome as getting together to watch Sportsball, or to play poker, or for a LAN party, or whatever non-gamers do with their friends. I want to inspire people to try hobby games, and I want to remove the stigma associated with gaming and gamers.

I'm pretty sure we succeeded. By the second day of production, our crew was grabbing games out of our games library to play at lunch. All of our interns and production assistants have become complete game fanatics, and whenever I edit a show, all I want to do is go home and play that game until my face falls off.

I hope you'll subscribe to our channel, and please tell your friends about Tabletop.

In which my wife is a super villain

Posted on 16 March, 2012 By Wil

Yesterday, I told Twitter: If Anne was a super villain, she'd be The Earworm, and she would terrorize the citizens by putting horrible songs into their head.

Twitter worked its magic, and a short time later, this appeared:

Thank you, @jadegordon, for making something awesome.