Air Sex Championships
We imagine that many of you, our esteemed viewers, have stood in front of a mirror and played air guitar until your fingers bled. San Francisco’s own Veronica Belmont is an air guitar champion. So it’s only natural that the Air Championship gods create a more (or less) challenging category of Air Sex! Air Sex Championships? Yes!
It all started in Japan, where drunk lonely guys decided to entertain themselves by making love to imaginary partners while clothed and listening to music. The activity took off in more ways than one, with championships held in more than one country. And just try NOT to search for “Peer Pressure” on YouTube. A certain ottoman gets extremely lucky.
Here is GETV’s expose of the Air Sex Championships as they passed through our fair city. The sweat, the drama, the athleticism. Enjoy.
Episode links: Air Sex World Championships, Air Sex Comes to SF, Veronica Belmont on Air Guitar
What’choo Talking About, Todd Bridges?
You may not want to run up to legendary American TV actor Todd Bridges and yell “What’choo talkin’ bout, Willis?” (in case you were born in the 90’s, Bridges played Gary Coleman’s older brother Willis on the historic TV series “Diff’rent Strokes” — the molestation episode is classic!) For the past few years, Bridges has joined the ranks of professional wrestling. If he gets annoyed by Willis fans, he just might body slam them! Bridges is known in the ring as Mr. Not So Perfect — and if you check out the internets, you’ll see his grown up days have been exactly that, including some serious criminal charges. That’s why we love him so. Building his own computers from the ground up, playing PC games, and talkin’ smack online, Willis identifies as a true computer geek. Watch the interview to hear his politcal thoughts on Cary Coleman’s run for governor and the current California Governator. Also, watch for his online gamer tag so you can wrestle him yourself! Don’t forget to peep past the credits for a special challenge from the Slutsky.
Episode links: Todd Bridges, Fog City Wrestling
Woz Plays Serious Segway Polo in the Park
This is rewind week as we delve back into the archives to pull out this favorite geek gem from 2006. We attended a hoity toity Segway Polo match for charity with GETV alums Steve Wozniak and Victor Miller where GETV Guest Segway Sportscaster Nicole Shipley (daughter of Veritas Software founder Dale Shipley) asked hard hitting questions about a serious issue with the Segway. The match was part of the 22nd annual Polo in the Park and the money went to the James S. Brady Riding Program for Special Children ? so all kinds of horseplay went on. Yeah, we do hang with chopped liver. MMM, chopped liver. Special thanks to Diego?s Umbrella for the soundtrack. We?ll keep our pants on, thanks.
Episode links: SF Polo in the Park, Segway HT Polo, Victor Miller, Steve Wozniak, Segway of Oakland, Diego’s Umbrella
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom Grows Geek Roots
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom was a recent guest speaker at the Long Now Foundation’s SALT (Seminars About Long-term Thinking) monthly speaker series. Typically, SALT hosts big thinker uber geeks like Jimmy Wales, Clay Shirky and Neal Stephenson. San Francisco being the geek capital of the world, it’s no surprise that Newsom knows how to Twitter around on his iPhone and is savvy in the ways of the networked world. Violet Blue grabs the mayor for a few questions covering timely geek topics like tidal and wave energy systems, keeping up with constituents using Twitter and Facebook as well as YouTube distribution for his State of the City address.
Episode links: Gavin Newsom, San Francisco Mayor’s Office, Long Now Foundation, Gavin on Twitter, Gavin on YouTube, Sea Generation Ltd, WaveRoller, Wave Dragon, Greenpeace UK Efficiencity
Brad Warner is Not Your Typical Zen Master
What do Zen Buddhism, hardcore punk and Japanese monster movies have in common? We don’t know either, but bass player turned Zen Master Brad Warner stitches it altogether for us. Violet Blue gets the skinny from Warner at Green Apple Books in San Francisco, after a signing for his most recent book, Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate: A Trip Through Death, Sex, Divorce, and Spiritual Celebrity in Search of the True Dharma.
Episode links: Brad Warner, Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate: A Trip Through Death, Sex, Divorce, and Spiritual Celebrity in Search of the True Dharma, Zero Defects, Green Apple Books, Violet Blue
Is It Possible to Love a Horse Too Much?
After watching the movie ZOO during one night of insomnia, Irina decided that a Boeing geek who worked on black ops, built guided missile systems and ended up dying of horse intercourse could be a good topic for an episode. ZOO is about Kenneth Pinyan, a Boeing engineer who died “due to acute peritonitis [that resulted from the] perforation of the sigmoid colon during anal intercourse with a horse.”
Since that guy is dead, GETV interviewed Charles Mudede, the man who researched the heck out of the topic and wrote a movie about him. Mudede a journalist for one of America’s best alternative newsweeklies, The Stranger in Seattle, said something we already know…. “that without the internet, this [horse sex] community would not exist. The combination of a leading technology of our day and an ancient – if dark – practice would not exist.” But really, what the movie tells us is that we are all weird and searching for something, some kind of connection. Not all of us have to fuck a horse to find it, but don’t be so quick to judge. Know what I mean?
Episode links: ZOO, Charles Mudede, Kenneth Pinyan, The Stranger
Santa Takes Over San Francisco
Santacon aka Santarchy, a jolly rampage of hundreds maybe thousands of Santas, is an annual tradition that occurs in cities all across the globe. Nowhere is it more diverse and well attended than in San Francisco, where the tradition started some 15 years ago when the Cacophony Society decided that Christmas should have a more noble purpose than buying & consuming. With the tradition firmly mature, we take a ride along the “Klassic Kringle” route where Santa runs into bewildered tourists, reindeer dogs and groups of festive bards. Sit back, enjoy the ride and make plans to join the red menace next year.
Episode links: Santarchy & Santacon, SantaCon (wikipedia), Photos (LaughingSquid), Cacophony Society (wikipedia), Jingle Punx
Fog City Wrestling
If you’ve never seen muscle men in spandex, masks, tattoos and make up running around jumping on top of each other and screaming, you haven’t been to a wrestling show! After 30 years of downtime, San Francisco’s Fog City Wrestling promises a monthly dose of pro-wresting hijinks mixed with kitchy Mexican Lucha Libre with a splash of comic book antics. Istope comic store owner James Sime acted as commissioner and a part of the live show. GETV stopped by this weekend to witness the insanity, the hairless chests, the manly muscles, the screaming madness, the high-flying tricks, the body slams, the dropkicks, and the flying sweat. Irina enjoyed herself perhaps a bit much as she interviewed the roster of Fog City’s wrestlers. If “geek” means having a deep passion for something, then these guys are wrestling geeks for sure. If you can’t make it to Fog City’s live wrestling show on Jan 10, watch the livestream on their site. The organizers also post their audio and video podcast on the site, including promos and interviews with wrestlers from the roster. See you on the mat!
Episode links: Fog City Wrestling, NY Knockout, Tony Drake, Oliver John
Cupcake Camp Isn’t Just for Sugar Lovers
What do bakers of cupcakes and geek unconferences have in common? A lot it turns out. Both spawn high amounts of sugary fueled goodness, encourage collaboration for common tasty goals and openly share the processes to reach them. CupcakeCamp, modeled after BarCamp, encourages campers to make, bake or just eat cupcakes. Tastings are self organized into time slots, thrown up on a wiki and judged for taste, style and originality.
In this episode, Violet Blue — GETV’s roving baked good’s correspondent — takes you deep into the yeasty wide world of cupcakes and CupcakeCamp, created by none-other than lovely Internet Femme Fatales Ariel Waldman, Lynn Poshy, Cindy Li, and Marianne Masculino. If you think cup cakes are just slutty muffins, get ready to have your paradigm shifted. You’ll then know not to miss the next CupcakeCamp coming up on December 7th at the Satisfactory in San Francisco.
Episode links: CupcakeCamp (site), CupcakeCamp (wiki), Upcoming CupcakeCamp, Ariel Waldman, Lynn Poshy, Cindy Li, Marianne Masculino, Violet Blue
Election Night in San Francisco
After seeing that the old confederate state of Virginia went and voted for Obama, the GETV crew make some history of its own by pulling an all-nighter and doing a first-ever spot-news deadline episode! BUT ITS CUZ OBAMA IS PRESIDENT ELECT! We had to go out and party with the people of San Francisco and stop by the Current TV and Digg party to show you what it was like out here in the West Coast of A.
Episode links: Barack Obama