On this special episode of Hard NOC Life, Shawn Taylor returns to join Keith as they look back at the legacy of De La Soul, one month after the group’s entire catalog was finally released to streaming platforms and a new generation of hip-hop fans.
Aside from father and husband, there are few titles that mean more to me than, b-boy. Yes, I have just entered my 50s, but b-boy still resonates for me as an operational position. While I no longer believe hip hop can change the world — the culture did move some things around — I do believe that hip hop can change us, so we can better navigate the world.
Continue reading “De La Forever”
Batwheels is unique in the Batman franchise for introducing talking cars into the Bat-verse, but its far more significant step is introducing Duke Thomas, the first Black Robin, into onscreen media!
Continue reading “AJ Hudson on Playing Robin in Cartoonito’s ‘Batwheels’”
It was a huge day for the Bat and the Cat today! In addition to the new trailer for The Batman dropping, featuring Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight opposite Zoe Kravitz’s Catwoman, DC Animated Movies announced their next big offering, coming February 8, 2022, Catwoman: Hunted!
Continue reading “‘Catwoman: Hunted’ Leads DC Animation’s 2022 Movie Slate”
We are SO excited to discuss Nida Manzoor’s We Are Lady Parts, a British series featuring a punk rock band of all Muslim women of color, including MENA women, premiering today on Peacock TV! What did we love particularly about this series, and how well does it handle representation? We also discuss the news of the additional Sandman for Netflix, including the Lebanese Razane Jammal, American Eid debuting on Disney+, and much more!
Continue reading “The Middle Geeks Episode 27: ‘We Are Lady Parts’ Review”
Like The Dark Knight and Superman, the DC FanDome will triumphantly return this fall!
Continue reading “The DC FanDome Returns”
Dominic and Keith are discussing the latest WandaVision, speculating about Monica Rambeau’s future in the MCU, breaking down the Snyder Cut trailer (and its associated Joker memes), revisiting the De La Soul episode of Teen Titans GO!, and getting hyped for digital-first comics set in the Burton and Donner cinematic universes.
One of the the greatest cultural tragedies of the digital era is that De La Soul’s early music isn’t streaming. An early victim of the sample-clearance wars (over 70 on their masterful debut, 3 Feet High and Rising), De La’s cultural impact — and promise — has never been allowed to be fully realized. Not only has the streaming era proved to stifle De La’s early output, their contracts only covered physical media releases as no one anticipated that streaming would become the primary way we’d all experience media.
With new modes of delivery, new contracts have to be made for those previous albums. And De La has tried to do this in good faith, but Tommy Boy Records, the label De La was originally signed to, has refused to give them a mutually equitable deal. Tommy Boy would take the lion’s share of the profits, even though all of De La’s albums have recouped (made back initial production/investment costs).
Continue reading “Teen Titans Soul: De La Go!”
Upon its announcement the DC FanDome experience was going to showcase four separate rooms to explore and a full schedule of DC fan experiences that users could choose from to create a customized itinerary. However, as you can see from the incredible Hall of Heroes event itself two weeks ago, there was just too much awesome to contain to one day.
So on September 12, for 24 hours, get ready to return to the FanDome, to explore the multiverse!
Continue reading “DC FanDome: Get Ready to Explore the Multiverse”
It’s been a long, long quarantine folks. Let’s be honest, under normal circumstances, we’d all be waist deep in Con season — the most wonderful time of the year; starting with Wondercon, then Paleyfest, E3, Anime Expo, and glorious, glorious SDCC. But alas, 2020 has been something of a cruel master. And while truthfully these are a.) first-world problems, and b.) necessary sacrifices to maintain health and safety, yours truly still longs for the ability to take solace and comfort in the simple joys of abandoning life’s problems, and uniting as one ginormous tribe of nerds, hugging and crying over the excitement generated from the world debut of the most anticipated trailers of the year in Hall H. I miss those days, and if you’re anything like me, I’m sure you all do too.
Continue reading “Get Ready for the DC FanDome!”
For the last Hard NOC Life of 2018, Keith is joined by actor, writer, filmmaker, and professional nerd Jon Lee Brody to recap the year in superheroes in film and television.
Continue reading “Hard NOC Life: The Year in Superhero Media”
Hard NOC Life will be going on a brief hiatus. But before it does, Keith and Shawn have to break down the election, its relation to Nerd Pop, and a special announcement about the podcast.
Iron Fist is cancelled, Titans is launched, and Superman returns to The CW! All this and more on a new episode of Hard NOC Life.
Continue reading “Hard NOC Life: The Show That Shall Not Be Renewed”
Opening in theaters everywhere today, Teen Titans GO! To The Movies is the superhero film we need right now. Blending the animated series’ mix of satire, pop culture references, and all-around wackiness, TTGTTM deserves to be DC’s highest rated movie since last year’s Wonder Woman. I got a chance to have a chat with one of the stars of the film, and one of the most iconic voice actors in the business, Khary Payton, about being Cyborg.
Continue reading “One-on-One with ‘Teen Titans GO! To The Movies’ Star Khary Payton”
As a geek parent, I, for the most part, have been unsuccessful in passing on my enthusiasms to my teen and tween daughters. Sure, my eldest is now a confirmed Potterhead, but only years after her mother and I bequeathed her our books, which she refused to read because they were ours. She discovered and fell in love with Stranger Things on her own, too, which I guess is what works with her — if we’d told her to watch it, maybe she wouldn’t have listened. Her younger sister is a bit more open to my suggestions, and loves anything with magic and the fantastic, and she happily displays my gifts of Pop! figures of strong female characters on her shelf. However, she scares very, very easily, so attempts to watch Star Wars movies, for example, are interrupted by frequents runs out of the room or outright refusals, no matter how much likes likes the characters.
Continue reading “‘Teen Titans GO! To the Movies’ is Fun for Kids and Their Grown-ups”
