Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2257

POKÉMON Episodes New and Old Will Soon Air in the U.S. On Disney XD

While Pokémon has obviously made a tremendous splash in gaming circles since the 1990s, let’s not forget that it’s a global multimedia empire, and that the anime has been a force for just about as long as the games, the two continually feeding each others’ success over the years. The show is still big in the U.S., and now it has a new American home, as it was just announced that The Pokémon Company has inked a deal with Disney XD to make the network the exclusive home of the show stateside.

This partnership goes into effect on December 5, when Disney XD will celebrate by premiering (in the United States, at least) the latest Pokémon movie, Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel, as well as an hour-long preview of the Sun and Moon-based anime, which officially begins its run in 2017. This isn’t just Disney XD getting broadcast rights to the newest season of the show, however. The network will be able to air the previous 19 seasons of the show (or over 900 episodes) and 15 Pokémon movies, so you best believe the channel is going to make the anime a staple of its programming schedule.

What’s also interesting about this deal, as Polygon points out, is that this means Pokémon now shares a network with Yo-Kai Watch, the show’s biggest contemporary monster-collecting rival. While Pokémon is significantly more popular in our neck of the woods, the gap between the two isn’t quite as wide in Japan, as the show and games have amassed a significant following over there.

Check out a trailer for the show above, and below, a trailer for the movie and an ad spot heralding the premiere of both on Disney XD.

Featured image: The Official Pokémon Channel

Audio Rewind: A Brief History of Art and Stuttering

When I was in second grade, I developed a stutter. I don’t know where it came from, or why it started, but, once it appeared, it was as though it had always been a part of my life. I couldn’t remember having ever not stuttered—even though my parents assured me that it was a very new phenomenon.

Stuttering is a curious condition. There is still no singular cause, and its severity can depend on countless variables: genes, social reactions, brain structure, and even the treatments adopted to alleviate it. Stuttering affected me throughout adolescence and into college. I still stutter, from time to time. Throughout my life, though, there have been two important outlets that have allowed me to cope and to create without speaking: music and writing. Recently, much to my delight, I discovered that the development of, and the allure to, these crafts were not without some precedent in the stuttering world.

David Mitchell, the famed author behind Cloud Atlas and other brilliantly original stories, has dealt with a stutter his entire life, too, and he attributes his writing acumen—at least in part—to that stutter. “The writer that I am has been shaped by the stammering kid that I was, and that although my stammer didn’t make me write, it did, in part, inform and influence the writer I became,” Mitchell said in an interview with the Paris Review. “It’s true that stammerers can become more adept at sentence construction. Synonyms aren’t always neatly interchangeable. Sometimes choosing word B over word A requires you to construct a different sentence to house it—and quickly, too, before your listener smells the stammering rat.”

I’ve been interchanging words (or at least attempting to) on the fly since I was 7, precisely so that I wouldn’t be discovered as that stammering rat. I never recognized this constant transposition as something that might actually benefit anything, though; it’s always been a habit derived from sheer terror. But then I read Mitchell’s depiction of his own childhood and found both courage and a powerful resonance in his words.

I’m not the literary icon that he is, of course, but through this piece, I also want to give hope to those stammerers who aspire to live life without fear, and also—neigh, especially—to those that dream of ridding themselves of the social barriers and the inner anguish it can foment. It’s very possible. You are not alone. And David Mitchell is far from the only person at the intersection of the arts and a stutter.

Alongside writing, my other primary outlet is music. I studied vocal performance in college and I’ve been singing my entire life—partly because I found that, for whatever reason, when a melody was adjoined to my words, my stutter disappeared. Neuroimaging has revealed various brain impairments that correlate to stuttering, one being relative deactivation in the left hemisphere auditory areas and frontal temporal region during speech. When we sing, though, we use the right side of our brain. And the sinuous qualities of song and the recitation from memory also help contribute to fluid communication—an anomaly in the life of a stutterer. So I sang, and so I sing.

I was particularly amused, then, when I read that the 1974 song “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” by Canadian rock group, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, featured a private stuttering joke. The track’s signature tag—”B-B-B-Baby, you just ain’t seen n-n-n-nothin’ yet”—was an homage from Randy Bachman to his brother Gary, who struggled with a stammer. The record company preferred the stuttering take to the original and released it as such. That sputter would go on to become the hallmark of the song.

After reading the BTO anecdote, I looked to see if there were other celebrity-related stammering instances and I was shocked at what I found. There exists a multitude of famous stutterers! Samuel L. Jackson. Emily Blunt. James Earl Jones. B.B. King. Marilyn Monroe. Elvis Presley. Kendrick Lamar. Nicole Kidman. Bruce Willis. And there are many, many others. Stuttering, to degrees that vary from barely perceptible to completely debilitating, affects an estimated 70 million people in the world, and celebrities are not excluded from that population. I have newfound reverence for all of these artists. Coping with a stutter on your own is hard enough; to do it with the world watching takes some real goddamn courage.

This courage, the indomitability of those that dared challenge their impediment, was the inspiration for this piece. For almost my entire life, if you had given me one wish, it would have been to rid myself of my stutter. Middle school, as you can imagine, is not a nice place for a stutterer. And the fear of speaking, reamed into us from bullies and the apparent ease of speech for non-stutterers, only exacerbates its effects. For the stutterer in these situations, to speak is to be a fish out of water. It constricts. It overwhelms. And after it happens, the fear that it could happen again lingers always.

My stutter, though much improved, remains a haunting memory of the terror and embarrassment I experienced growing up. As of this writing, I have spoken openly about it to exactly two people outside of my family, and both instances have come within the last year. Today, though, as I begin my 28th year of life (shameless birthday plug), I am thankful for my stutter, and I am appreciative of the fact that sometimes we cannot see what is best for us. For me, stuttering necessitated a lifelong workaround, and so it shed light on the joys of music, and it unveiled the richness of the written word, and it attracted me to the breathing techniques of meditation. Today, music, writing, and meditation are three things that define who I am, and I don’t believe I would regard them with the same fervency that I do if not for my stutter.

So, to all the stutterers and the similarly afflicted: sing, write, teach, joke, act, dream, and show the world why it ain’t seen nothin’ yet. You are not alone. In fact, you are in very good company indeed.

Image: Public Domain

Home Geekonomics: GILMORE GIRLS Essentials

Home Geekonomics is a series that features the best in geeky home decor, food and DIY. Each week will focus on a specific fandom and highlight the best of geek for your home and everyday life.

We’re one week out from the much anticipated Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life revival and we don’t even know what to do with ourselves. We’re training for the binge watch by drinking coffee, talking fast, and downing Mallomars by the dozen. It’s like prepping for a 24-dance marathon but without the exercise.

It’s hard to focus on anything that’s not junk food right now, but while you put together your Gilmore Girls viewing party, consider these fun Gilmore-themed home goods to get you in the spirit. We’ll brew the coffee.

Stars Hollow Gilmore Girls Tote by Genuine Design Co

There’s no small town quite like Stars Hollow and this tote shows off some of the best landmarks in town. Use it to pick up Chinese food at Al’s Pancake World or cornstarch at Doose’s Market. Oddly there’s no Kirk’s Diner. Hmm.

Luke’s Diner Paper Cups by TwoFunnyGirlsTx

If you’re parking yourself on your couch for a binge watch, you’re going to need coffee and lots of it. If you can’t get it in an I.V. then take out from Luke’s is the next best thing. These paper cups have the town diner’s logo and make you feel like you’re right at home.

Keep the Gilmores close to your heart with these fun Lorelai and Rory enamel pins. These pieces of flair show that you’re ready to commit to all the seasons: winter, spring, summer, and fall. Oh and hey, there’s a Luke pin too. I’m in. I am all in.

Chilton Patch by JennisPrints

If you really want to channel your inner Gilmore, grab your favorite navy blazer and get crafty! This Chilton patch will show off your alumni allegiance to the best prep school in Hartford. Don’t worry, it’s iron on so it’s a no-fail. After all, though failure is a part of life, it is not a part of Chilton.

Star Wars Stars Hollow T-shirt from Tee Public by WhoElseElliott

When it comes to mashups this is one of the best. In a year of revivals, this combo of Star Wars and Gilmore Girls let’s the world know your love of sci-fi and fast-talking.

Images: Genuine Design Co, TwoFunnyGirlsTx, More Me Know, JennisPrints, TeePublic

Emily Gilmore tells us what it was like returning to Gilmore Girls

Meet Alpha, Our Brand New Interactive Community Built Just For You!

After spending the past few weeks testing, tinkering, and toying with our latest experiment, we are finally ready to unleash our new platform on the world. Yes, we are finally ready for the masses to meet Alpha, an exciting new interactive community from Nerdist (that’s us!) and Geek & Sundry (our pals!). If you can’t wait to get started, skip the explanation and sign up for your free 30-day trial right here.

You may have seen our initial announcement, screened some of our new and returning shows, or even participated in our early access period where we had a handful of diehard fans check out what we’ve been working on and give us feedback. But in case this is your first time hearing about Alpha, let us lay it all out for you.

In the words of our illustrious Nerdist overlord Chris Hardwick, Alpha is like our very own community clubhouse! Once you sign up, you unlock the key to a treasure trove of stuff, including:

Advance episodes of shows like Wil Wheaton’s TableTop, Because Science, and The Dan Cave
Interactive elements to beloved sagas like Geek & Sundry’s Critical Role
Brand new series from folks like Matt Mira, Janet Varney, Epic Rap Battles‘ Zach Sherwin, The Tin Can Brothers, and more
Access to Nerdist and Geek & Sundry IRL events like Comic-Con and SXSW
Forums and chats to connect with your fellow fans
10% discount on purchases from both of our stores with NO restrictions
…And so much more!

Now, you’ll notice that you can find our shiny new community over at ProjectAlpha.com, and that’s because this is so much more than a straightforward video platform. We made Alpha for you — the fans, the community — to create your own space to talk and obsess over the things that you (and we) love, from science to tabletop games to books and superheroes and sci-fi and escape rooms and… we could go on. It’s a team effort, so above all else, we want to hear from you: What do you like? What else would you like to see? Where can we improve? Remember, you get a free 30-day membership when you sign up, so you’ll have plenty of time to explore. Once your 30 days are up, you can stay on board for just $4.99 a month (or $49.99 a year)!

We’ll be keeping you up to date with new changes and updates and all that jazz over on our official blog, but please make sure you’re sharing your thoughts and feelings with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as you check out everything Alpha has to offer!

Secret Science Nerds: Arrival Screenwriter Eric Heisserer Puts on a Sci-Fi Clinic

If you were anywhere near a movie theater, TV, or computer screen in the past week, there’s a good chance you saw advertisements for Arrival, a new sci-fi movie that stars Amy Adams as a linguist tasked with establishing communication with an alien species. The movie puts scientists front and center in a tense stand-off that has world-ending implications. So it should come as no surprise that the source story, Ted Chiang’s Nebula Award and Sturgeon award-winning Story of Your Life, has strong sci-fi roots. Screenwriter Eric Heisserer had to rediscover his own roots in the genre in order to tackle the adaptation. His latest screenwriting effort easily earns Heisserer a place in our pantheon of Secret Science Nerds.

In a chat with The Talk House, Heisserer went all the way back to some of his earliest memories, those of bedtime stories written by Robert A. Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, and Isaac Asimov, and read to him by his mother, “stories of new worlds, new ideas, and possibilities for the future.” But Heisserer kept that literary passion quiet in his not-so-science-friendly hometown in Oklahoma. He says it was Chiang’s story, decades later, that drew him back to the genre.

Despite the award-winning source material and Heisserer’s status as a proven screenwriter, he had a tough time getting a studio to bite on the adaptation. Instead, he got the okay from Chiang to write the script on spec and, over the next year, learned the hard way how difficult it is to get science-fiction right.

For starters, Heisserer didn’t have the luxury of making things up from whole cloth; his details had to be rooted in the dynamic and complicated sciences of linguistics and theoretical physics. He found the linguistic approach to a first-contact story intriguing, and took a deep dive on concepts like the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, i.e. how the structure of a language influences the culture in which it’s spoken. Heisserer wasn’t just writing about incredibly intelligent experts in their fields, but “writing for characters way smarter than [he is] as they face the biggest mental challenge of their lives.” He spent time with linguists and physicists to get a handle on their jargon, their references, and their interactions. All of that detail went into the script.

The “heptapod” language itself had to be deciphered by the characters in order to reach a basic level of understanding with the aliens, and vice versa. For Heisserer, it had to be created first. The screenwriter took to Twitter after the movie’s opening weekend to lay out a wealth of behind-the-scenes nuggets on the creation of the logograms, and much more. For example:

Now, around this time, lauded scientist Stephen Wolfram was brought on to consult, and to help us integrate his software (Mathematica).

— Eric Heisserer (@HIGHzurrer) November 14, 2016

That code looked like this: pic.twitter.com/BstvUct4PQ

— Eric Heisserer (@HIGHzurrer) November 14, 2016

As easy as it would have been to get carried away with the cleverness of this language, in his script, Heisserer stressed the importance of clarity and emotional transparency, saying, “We just don’t do it enough. So many of our conflicts and our problems stem from miscommunication.”

As for the math, Heisserer reveals that “Jeremy Renner’s character had a more pronounced role during production, and it was only in post that Denis [Villeneuve] and [editor] Joe Walker realized the more they made the focal point Amy’s character, Louise, the more aerodynamic the movie got. So it was better for us that way. There was really great material.” Still, he put the work in, exploring such relatively obscure concepts as Fermat’s Principle and Snell’s Law.

Arrival took 100 drafts of the script to get to the finish line, ultimately giving moviegoers one of the most enjoyable, thought-provoking, and scientifically rich films we’ve seen in years. I think most of us, including Heisserer would agree that it was worth the effort.

What other Secret Science Nerds would you like us to profile in a future article? Let us know in the comments below!

Images: Twitter

Metallica Released a Music Video for Every Song on Their New Album

Metallica will officially debut their first new record since 2008 on Friday. Hardwired… To Self Destruct will be the band’s thrd album of the 21st century, and from the singles they released over the last month or so, it sounded like it might be a return to thrash roots. Now, ahead of the release, the iconic metal band released a new music video for every single song on the record, unleashing them every two hours yesterday.

Because we are fans just like you and don’t want you to have to scramble to a bunch of different places to see them all and listen to the album, we’ve compiled each new video below, in the order of the album’s tracklist. The videos, as you will see below, all range in style in tone, from animated to live action to a tribute to their fallen brethren, Lemmy Kilmister. Let’s dive in!

“Hardwired”

“Atlas Rise”

“Now That We’re Dead”

“Moth Into Flame”

“Dream No More”

“Halo On Fire”

“Confusion”

“ManUNkind”

“Here Comes Revenge”

“Am I Savage”

“Murder One”

“Spit Out The Bone”

“Lords of Summer”

Well, what do you guys think of the new album? How will this one go down in Metallica history? Is it better or worse than Death Magnetic? Be sure to let us know where you stand in the comments below and on Twitter.

Image: BB Gun Press

Matt Grosinger is the music editor of Nerdist and is pretty stoked about this new Metallica record? Are you stoked too? Let’s talk about it on Twitter.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ROANOKE Finale Recap

Editor’s Note: This post contains spoilers for American Horror Story: Roanoke . Proceed with caution if you haven’t caught up.

I didn’t think it was possible, but American Horror Story: Roanoke was even more all over the place than Hotel. The mysterious season kicked off as a docudrama-style series, with actors doing reenactments of “true events” that happened in the spooky house. Halfway through the season, the show pivoted to a reality show, throwing the real Shelby (Lily Rabe), Matt (André Holland), and Lee (Adina Porter) into the house with the actors that played them in My Roanoke Nightmare: Fake Shelby/Audrey (Sarah Paulson), Fake Matt/Dominic (Cuba Gooding jr.), Lee/Monet (Angela Bassett), and their supporting cast. As that section came to a bloody conclusion, the finale took on several styles at once and only one person was left standing. Find out who in our full recap of the finale.

The episode picked up with the cast before they started filming the reality show spin-off. During a panel at Paleyfest, fans cheered for literally everything they said, and asked the cat burning questions. After the hubbub died down, the show cut to one of the fans visibly upset about how everyone died on the spin-off. But you know who wasn’t their fan? Lot Polk, the only character left from the Polk Farms.

The disgruntled hillbilly showed up later on, but we will bet to that in a minute. Before that explosive incident, Lee was put on trial several times. The first time around, she was tried for all of the murders she was caught on camera committing. But she was later acquitted because her defense team came up with the idea that the Polk’s hallucinogenic marijuana made her go on a crazy rampage.

But Lee wasn’t off scot free. Refusing to let it go, the district attorney took her to court again over her video confession to Mason’s murder. On top of the actual confession, and security cameras, the D.A. called Lee’s daughter to the stand to testify against her mother. Apparently, Flora was there the night her father was killed. After she told the jury about what she had seen, Lee went behind her back and told the jury about her ghost friend Priscilla. With that in mind, the lawyers chalked up her testimony as untrustworthy, and indicated that Flora was imagining her friend Priscilla.

Unsurprisingly, Lee’s relationship with her daughter was tarnished, and she was in a custody battle with Mason’s family to try to keep her. In the heat of the drama, Lee agreed to speak with Lana Winters (AHS Asylum) about her story. While seeing the character again was a fun walk down memory lane, Lee’s reason for agreeing to the interview (over the likes of Diane Sawyer, etc.) was because Lana knows what it’s like to kill a child; this was a big part of Lana’s story in season two.

As the conversation was starting to spice up, Lana got to the real questions. Apparently Flora is missing, and the host accused Lee of being responsible. Just as Lee was getting up to go off and look for her daughter, Lot Polk burst into the room guns-a-blazing, and knocked Lana out with the butt of his gun.

Meanwhile, a group of ghost hunters from the show “Spirit Chasers”, which is basically a knock-off of Ghost Adventures and Ghost Hunters, invited Ashley Neal /Cricket (Leslie Jordan), to investigate the Roanoke house during another blood moon. It’s obviously not a good idea, and clear that nobody seems to learn or believe how real the threat is at the house. It didn’t take long for things to go from zero to one ghostly hundred in a minute. Soon the ghosts of the house made their presence known and started offing the group.

Oh, and did I mention they bumped into Lee? Because of course they did. Following her encounter with Lana, Lee took a trip back to the house because she has a feeling Priscilla was responsible for taking Flora, or at least knows where she is. When Lee was finally reunited with her daughter, the cops had already surrounded the house to investigate. There was then a standoff where Lee refused to give up her daughter.

But they weren’t alone. Priscilla the ghost girl was there in the shadows keeping her finger crossed Flora would choose to stay in the house and protect her. Flora realized the only way to shield her friend from the wrath of the Butcher was if she became a ghost. So yeah, Flora is ready to offer up her life to protect a ghost–and Lee won’t have an of it. When her daughter proposed the idea, Lee shut her down and offered to become a ghost herself and stay to protect Priscilla instead. Like the savage she is, Flora agreed, and her mother was a goner (except she was totally visible immediately after unlike other characters who died.)

At the very end of the episode, we saw the house going up in flames as the Roanoke colonists marched towards it. Flora was the only one left standing, of course, if you don’t count Lady Gaga who never appeared as her actor character. I guess we will never know how Roanoke truly fit in to the overarching American Horror Story series.

What did you think of the finale? Were you happy with the outcome? Let us know in the comments!

Images: FX

Even Poochie Couldn’t Prevent This Massive Fireworks Factory Explosion

Until now there has only ever been one video associated with a fireworks factory, and it was defined by disappointment.

Well you can quit your sobbing Milhouse, because while stupid old Poochie may have prevented Itchy and Scratchy from ever getting there, we now know what it might have looked like, after this amazing, real life fire set off a massive explosion in a fireworks factory.

The video from this incredible event in Blagoveshchensk, Russai was posted by the YouTube channel XXI Century. Fortunately we know that no one suffered any major injuries thanks to The Daily Mail, which reported that though three firefighters were taken to the hospital, it was for non-life threatening injuries.

The enormous blaze required 130 firefighters and 40 trucks in total to put out, and if you’re wondering how this could happen, locals say that no one had any idea fireworks were even being stored there, so the building might not have been equipped to handle such dangerous materials in the first place.

While this was obviously an extremely dangerous situation, almost everyone involved escaped unharmed, which means we can enjoy this completely crazy explosion without feeling too bad about it. And in fairness to Milhouse, knowing what we know now after seeing this, it probably wasn’t out of line for him to get emotional when Poochie stopped Itchy and Scratchy from getting there.

What did you think of this video? Did a fireworks factory explosion live up to the hype? Blow up our comments section below with your thoughts.

Featured Image: XXI Century

Take a Tour of the LEGO Death Star With This Awesome Stop Motion Animation

There isn’t one of us who doesn’t instantly revert back to childhood when standing in the LEGO aisle or taking a pilgrimage to a LEGO store. Remember when you were a kid, and you’d stare at that big wall of LEGO build kits, find the most intricate one, and with your optimistic child mind, still untainted by the stark realities of motor skills, attention span, and wily younger siblings, thinking I can build this?

Then that cold, unforgiving sting of reality would hit you when you sat, back in your room, endless LEGO pieces strewn precariously about your floor. You would try to make sense of the instructions, but ultimately realize you could not build the masterpiece on the box, and ultimately just opt for building several small “houses” which were really just LEGO cubes, but you’d assure yourself that this was no failure. You were simply too creative to be bound by the rules of instructions for LEGO fun.

Anybody? Just me?

Regardless of how successful your LEGO endeavors have been, there is something truly impressive about a person successfully completing an intricate LEGO kit. YouTuber Bart van Dijk is an expert at not only completing some rad-looking LEGO builds, but also creating truly delightful stop-motion animations to go with the builds. Bart recently completed set number 75159, the Star Wars Death Star kit, and after expertly placing over 4,000 LEGO pieces, he managed to bring one of the most infamous space stations to life.

This isn’t Bart’s first foray into the world of stop-motion LEGO building. His YouTube channel is filled with other amazing videos like his creation of the Beatles Yellow Submarine, Wall-E, a VW bus, and even the damn U.S. Capitol building. You can easily lose hours watching his totally amazing and mesmerizing builds.

So go, watch, and be inspired to re-ignite your own passion for LEGO building. In the comments, be sure to tell us one of your favorite successful (or unsuccessful, no shame here) LEGO build stories!

Feature Image: Bart van Dijk/Youtube

The KONG: SKULL ISLAND Trailer is a Veritable Monsterpalooza

John C. Reilly knows it. Tom Hiddleston knows it. Brie Larson knows it, too: this ain’t just about big-ass gorillas anymore, y’all. It’s a veritable monsterpalooza happening right now on Skull Island.

On Wednesday evening, Jimmy Kimmel Live unveiled our first big-time look at (after a bunch of vague, Monarch-branded teasers) Kong: Skull Island. And based on this trailer alone, we’re in for so much more than that which we bargained. Is Skull Island our entryway into the long-discussed Legendary Pictures interconnected monster universe?

The gargantuan—and at-times moss covered (one of Kyle Hill’s favorite parts of the trailer given its scientific accuracy)—gorilla may be the king of Skull Island, but he’s hardly alone there. In addition to a colony of local natives and a seriously scene-stealing John C. Reilly, Kong seems to rule a whole host of big-ass creepy crawlies. From spiders to mega-yaks and underground ancient lizard monsters with arms and skull faces, we’re banking on a very big fight filled with very big scaries.

Psst: you can click the poster to make it full size!

Here’s a question, though: with that many scary monsters and that big of a hurricane churning around the island—how did no one find this mythical place until now? There’s no way that literal shit storm (By my and Kyle Hill’s deductions, the amount of poo a gorilla that size would make would poison the island’s soil, meaning he must be pooping into the sea, creating mega algae blooms that are keeping that big-ass hurricane surrounding the island. Hence, a LITERAL shit storm!) wasn’t all over every meteorological map of our oceans. Right? WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO HIDE HERE, MONARCH?!

[image error]

Needless to say we’re pretty pleased with how Kong: Skull Island is shaping up ahead of its March 10, 2017 release date. Are you? Let us know in the comments below!

Images: Legendary Pictures

Here’s our breakdown of the first trailer from SDCC:

Editor’s Note: Nerdist is a part of Legendary Digital Networks, a subsidiary of Legendary Pictures.