The Middle Geeks Episode 3: ‘Ramy’ and Navigating Identity
In the third episode of The Middle Geeks, we review Hulu’s Ramy, an incisive and groundbreaking new series on the Middle Eastern-American experience. Listen to Swara and Mae as we talk about what we loved about the series, how it made us feel about our own identities, and how we think it could have done better. We also break down all the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DCTV news from San Diego Comic-Con and talk about how we’re excited about what’s coming forward!
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Quentin Tarantino’s Bruce Lee Problem
Back in March, when the trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s latest — and allegedly penultimate — movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, hit the internet, there was one scene that concerned anyone who wasn’t already a die hard Tarantino stan. In it, Brad Pitt’s character seemingly fights Mike Moh’s Bruce Lee to a standstill. Needless to say, I wasn’t encouraged.
#RallyForRose Episode II Photo Gallery
We held our second annual “Rally For Rose” during San Diego Comic-Con on July 20. Even though we were competing with Marvel Studios’ Hall H panel, we were able to turn out several supporters and raise some money for both Alliance San Diego and the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum. The rally — which, this year, consisted of a march (or a “Rose Parade,” if you will) that started at the IMDboat and made its way to the Hilton Bayfront and was covered by Variety and NPR. All the while drawing attention to the importance of representation for all marginalized communities.
Taking on the “Badlands” with ‘Blinded by the Light’ Star Aaron Phagura
In a summer of legendary musician-inspired stories (e.g. Rocketman and Yesterday) Blinded by the Light, the new film from Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha, genuinely separates itself from the pack. This is a film that’s, not only about legendary music (in this case Bruce Springsteen’s music), but also speaks directly about how the power of music can provide encouragement for chasing ones dreams and promote acceptance within conservative cultures. Recently, The Nerds of Color was honored to be able to interview some of the cast and the director of the film. Thus, to countdown to the movie’s release on August 16, we’ll be releasing a series of interviews throughout the week chronicling what the dedicated filmmakers behind the film had to say about culture, music, racism, and dreams.
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East Coast NOCs: Win Tickets to the Red-Carpet World Premiere of ‘Blinded By The Light’
Attention East-Coast NOC’s! Want to go to the hometown of Bruce Springsteen to attend the World Premiere and After Party for an excellent movie??? If you said “hell yes,” this is for you!
Hard NOC Life: Marvel’s Fantastic Phase Four
After a grueling week in San Diego, Dominic and Keith return to take stock of all of the bombshells that dropped during Marvel Studios’ lauded Hall H presentation. Plus, Keith speaks to A Wave Blue World VP of Sales and Marketing Lisa Wu and illustrator Steenz — who’s working on an upcoming anthology for AWBW this fall — live at the annual NOC Comic-Con meetup.
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20 Things We Learned from Dreamworks ‘Abominable’ Visit
With the conclusion of the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy, Dreamworks is set to release their new film Abominable this year. The story centers around Yi (voiced by Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D’s Chloe Bennett), a teenage girl in modern day China, and her quest to bring the Yeti she found, while playing her violin on the roof, back home in the Himalayas. She is joined by her childhood friend and popular kid, Jin (Tenzing Norgay Trainor), and Jin’s young cousin, Peng (Albert Tsai).
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‘Cobra Kai’ Has Got to Step Up Its Representation Game in Season 3
The 50th San Diego Comic-Con has come and gone, and this year, the stars of the YouTube Premium series, Cobra Kai, were in attendance. For two seasons already, viewers of this continuation of The Karate Kid franchise have been following the rivalry of Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) via their feuding dojos. Continue reading “‘Cobra Kai’ Has Got to Step Up Its Representation Game in Season 3”
Into The SDCC-Cosplay-Verse With The NOC, Part II
More sights and snikts from the extraordinarily eventful San Diego Comic-Con 2019 (The 50th edition of SDCC!) Check out earlier coverage here and here!
We’ll get into the big reveals from SDCC50 on our podcast; we have plenty of time to contemplate the new Picard series, the Top Gun sequel (Miramar is right there in San Diego, after all), The CW’s Crisis crossover, the multiverse of announcements from Marvel in Hall H. For now, we’re still feeling the sunny afterglow from the melting pot of fandoms, cosplayers, and creative folk who make Comic-Con International such a special gathering, particularly so on this week when our Supervillain-In-Chief was yelling bigotry at POCs to “go back where they came from.” What can I say, fool: We’re from here.
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Into The San Diego Comic-Con Cosplay-Verse, Part I (2019 Edition)
2019 has been full of terrible happenings and counter-happenings, but here we are now at the 50th San Diego Comic-Con! (Or #SDCC19, if you’re into the brevity thing.) Perhaps owing to the superlatively non-racist good vibes induced by Into The … Continue reading Into The San Diego Comic-Con Cosplay-Verse, Part I (2019 Edition)
‘IT: Chapter 2’ Footage will have You Floating Too
Warner Bros. had an exciting opening to Comic-Con with their Scare Diego presentation of IT: Chapter 2. Hosted by Conan O’Brien, select fans and press were invited to preview the trailer and several scenes from the upcoming sequel. The director, Andrés Muschietti, and cast were on hand to answer some questions surrounding what was presented, including Jessica Chastain as Beverly, James McAvoy as Bill, Isaiah Mustafa as Mike, Jay Ryan as Ben, Bill Hader as Richie, James Ransone as Eddie, and Andy Bean as Stanley.
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The Circle of Life of “He Lives in You” from ‘The Lion King’
The long anticipated, photo-realistic animated version of The Lion King comes out this week, but the soundtrack was released last Friday. Most of the songs from the original 1994 film are on the list, with the exception of a few additions; one of them being, arguably, one of the most underrated songs to come out of Disney: “He Lives In You.” Continue reading “The Circle of Life of “He Lives in You” from ‘The Lion King’”
From Fan to Writer: F.C. Yee on Developing the Story of Avatar Kyoshi
Water. Earth. Fire. Air.
These elements are known to kick off the beginning of episodes of the beloved Nickelodeon animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and its sequel series, The Legend of Korra. While fans everywhere seem to know Avatar Aang and Avatar Korra, they also know that there were many other avatars preceding them, all with stories of their own. While we’ve heard the stories of some of these other avatars like Roku and Wan, there is one that fans are familiar with, but by way of only a tiny bit of information: Avatar Kyoshi. Continue reading “From Fan to Writer: F.C. Yee on Developing the Story of Avatar Kyoshi”
Hard NOC Life: Reflections on Disney’s Live Action Remakes
This week, Dominic and Keith bring honor to us all by breaking down all of the developments in Nerd Pop — specifically, Disney’s live action remake phenomenon.
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NOC Review: ‘The Lion King’ — Slimy or Satisfying?
The Lion King roars back into cinemas on July 19th–this time painstakingly brought to life by Iron Man, Chef, and Jungle Book maestro, Jon Favreau. Are we feeling the love tonight? Or is this one stuck in the elephant graveyard?
Find out by watching our NOC’s review of the movie here:
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Things We Learned From Disney’s ‘The Lion King’ Press Conference
Disney’s live action film The Lion King‘s press conference kicked off on Wednesday afternoon in Beverly Hills with a live performance of ‘The Circle of Life’ by original 1994 singer Lebo M and Clydene Jackson (who replaces Carmen Twillie for the new soundtrack). They were accompanied by the choir who were also part of the film’s soundtrack.
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‘Mulan’ is Still the Wokest Disney Princess Movie Your Kid Hasn’t Seen 600 Times Yet
Originally posted on Melancholyball.
The “Disney Princess” mythos is a genre as restrictive as it is globally-superpowered, but in terms of the Official Princess Movie with the most patriarchy-subverting politics, I think it’s no contest: Mulan is by far the most progressive-minded cel-animated Disney Princess film, while also performing its essential sedative-hypnotic function on your child’s developing emotional vocabulary. (Pocahontas has an argument too, but for my taste, the underlying colonization-conquest story is so far outside of Classic Disney’s natural lane, you kinda wonder what they’re even trying to say, and also the songs in Pocahontas are not my jam.)
Hard NOC Life: A Spectacular Spider-Man Podcast
With Spider-Man: Far From Home in theaters everywhere, Dominic and Keith look at what works — and what doesn’t — about the Spider-Man mythos.
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Getting Ready for 2019 Anime Expo
It’s the first week of July and for the third time in a row, my fellow NOC writer Josephine Chang and myself will be back in the halls of the Los Angeles Convention Center among thousands of others (last year had 110,000 attendees) from July 4 to July 7!
Join the #RoseParade at San Diego Comic-Con 2019
This year marks the 50th anniversary of San Diego Comic-Con, and the one-year anniversary since a crowd of Rose Tico cosplayers gathered at Bayfront Park to show their support for Kelly Marie Tran. And we’re doing it all over again! This time, we’re planning to march in a “Rose Parade” from the Convention Center to the NOC Meetup at the Hilton on Saturday, July 20. Let us know you’ll be part of the parade on Facebook!
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Remy Hii on his ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ Love Triangle with MJ and Peter
Watch out, Peter Parker!
There is a new romantic interest for Michelle aka “MJ” (Zendaya) in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
His name is Brad Davis and he is played by Australian actor, Remy Hii.
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‘Yesterday’ Star Himesh Patel Plays “The Beatles Song or Kanye West Tweets” with the NOC
Yesterday is out in theaters today — yes, it sounds really complicated, but it’s really good.
Written by Richard Curtis (Love Actually) and directed by Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire), Yesterday tells the story of a failed singer-songwriter Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) who, after a freak bus accident during a mysterious global blackout, wakes up to discover that The Beatles never existed. Taking this opportunity to become the singer-songwriter he always wanted to be, he begins to perform their songs and becomes an overnight sensation. While all of this is going on, there is a love story between Jack and his childhood best friend Ellie (Lily James).
Hard NOC Life: Do Summer Blockbusters Matter Anymore?
This week, Dominic and Keith break down the midpoint of the 2019 summer movie blockbuster season.
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