Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2395

Matt Damon Spy-Pranks People for Charity

With Daniel Craig almost certainly stepping down from his pedestal as James Bond, there is but one reigning superspy to rule them all in the cinematic landscape: Jason Bourne! Matt Damon is returning to the character in the fittingly titled Jason Bourne after a brief respite away—yeah, The Bourne Legacy definitely needed that Bourne fella to survive. But before he starts breaking faces, using household objects as weapons in meticulously choreographed fight scenes, and driving any number of vehicles to make his escape/chase people, Damon decided he’s turn average people into spies…whether they wanted to be or not.

In the above video from Omaze, Damon is armed with a cell phone, CCTV cameras, and the will to freak out unsuspecting mall-goers. Using two actors posing as spies in the sunny courtyard of L.A.’s Grove outdoor mall, Damon tries not to laugh as he guides them to the next portion of his absurd and nothing-ified spy mission. It’s amazing to see how many people actually do what a strange voice on the other end of a cell phone someone hands you while you’re essentially just waiting to finish your coffee before heading in to Sephora or wherever.

The video is to promote the newest Omaze campaign, this one to benefit Damon’s charity of Water.org, a non-profit that seeks to make sure the whole world has drinkable water. A noble goal, and one that is going to take a lot of hard work and help from as many people as possible. Donating at least $10 to the campaign will make you eligible for the grand prize: a trip to the premiere of Jason Bourne in Las Vegas and be Matt Damon’s best friend for a night, riding in a limo to the event, walking the red carpet, seeing the movie, and kicking back at the after-party, all with Mr. Bourne himself. Other perks you could win include t-shirts, books, jerseys, and more!

You can do your part, and get a chance to have a night on the town with Matt Damon, by visiting Omaze.

Image: Omaze

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. Follow him on Twitter!

Comic Book Club: Judy Stephens

Cosplayer, photographer, Marvel producer, co-host of Women of Marvel… the Club’s guest this week is someone you should know:

Judy Stephens (Marvel.com) joins the show to talk about turning her love of cosplay into a career, the Women of Marvel podcast, and more! Plus reviews of Dr. Strange #9, Detective Comics #935, Power Man/Iron Fist #5 and Wonder Woman #1!

Check out the website at comicbookclublive.com to find out how to watch the show live! And follow the show on Twitter: @comicbooklive, @azalben, @jtsizzle, and @realpetelepage

A 200W Laser Bazooka is a Terrible Idea, So Watch This Guy Make One

The power of a typical laser pointer is around 0.005 Watts. The FDA limit on laser operation is 100 times that, at 0.5 Watts. This kid just built a “laser bazooka” 400 times more powerful than that. Yeah, don’t try this at home.

In the video above, YouTuber styropyro — he has graciously gifted us with both a laser lightsaber and a laser shotgun in previous videos — has crafted what he estimates is the most powerful handheld laser ever built outside industrial or military applications. Given that just looking at a dot on a wall from a 0.5W laser can permanently damage your eyes, and he’s swinging around a 200W laser, we’re going to back away slowly and give him the benefit of the doubt.

styropyro built his latest lawsuit in a garage with a box of scraps. The housing, the lasers, the focusing element, all of it was either junk or recycled. It can ignite gunpowder in about a second, burn wood, burn through computer housing, and pop balloons. We’d expect that balloons wouldn’t fare well, considering that, as styropyro explains, looking straight into his bazooka would be 33,000,000 times worse than looking into the Sun.

There are obvious safety concerns here, but at least styropyro seems to be taking the necessary precautions. And he’s communicating the build, perils, and comparisons like a pro. We still think it’s a bad idea, but he’s got that going for him.

What do you think? Want to get your hands on a laser that could vaporize a passing seagull (maybe)? Let us know in the comments below.

Images: styropyro

Angel Olsen is a Rock Star and Everyone Should Know Her Name

If you’re not familiar with Angel Olsen, it’s high time you got to know her. The St. Louis folk rocker has been one of my favorite musicians—bar genre, bar era, bar anything—since she released Burn Your Fire for No Witness in 2014. The album is incredible, an emotive folk-rock masterpiece steeped in a lo-fi brew, and I felt it to be the best release of the year.

If that’s not testament enough, I then went and saw her three times in 2015 (in three different states), with each performance outshining the last. Onstage the musician oscillates between a quirky banter and her subtly distinct croon, like Sharon van Etten meets Roy Orbison meets the unbound stylings of Grace Slick. It’s dream inducing, and I was always left feeling like I’d stumbled into one of Dale Cooper’s Twin Peaks reveries for an hour (which is a great feeling, by the way).

Earlier this month, Olsen announced that My Woman, the follow-up to No Witness, would arrive on September 2 via Jagjaguwar. With the announcement, she also released a trailer, a full-on list of tour dates, and a statement declaring that she had “recalibrated her writing/recording approach and methods to enter a new music-making phase.”

Today Olsen shared the album’s newest single, “Shut Up Kiss Me,” and its accompanying video. True to her word, the new track does suggest a slightly different Angel—though nothing so staggering that it might be considered a departure, and nothing that in any way diminishes the quality of her work. In trading some of her enigmatic brood, for instance, the singer-songwriter gains an immediacy that makes this track sing. And, of course, she still howls and murmurs in that salient tenor, telling her love to “shut up kiss me hold me tight.”

In the video, Olsen dons the same sparkling wig she wore in the album trailer and appears in a bunch of ‘70s-tinged locales (roller disco, diner, arcade). Like her music, the clip inhabits that same nostalgic realm between past and present that Twin Peaks does so well. It’s the kind of dreamy you can dance to (aka the best kind) and it’s another great addition to the Angel Olsen canon. Check out the track and go see her when she swings through town.

Angel Olsen Tour:

Fri. Sep. 9 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West *

Sat. Sep. 10 – Nashville, TN @ Exit/In *

Sun. Sep. 11 – Cincinnati, OH @ Woodward Theater *

Mon. Sep. 12 – Millvale, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre *

Wed. Sep. 14 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer *

Thu. Sep. 15 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club *

Fri. Sep. 16 – Hudson, NY @ Basilica Hudson

Sat. Sep. 17 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall *

Sun. Sep. 18 – Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw *

Tue. Sep. 20 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair *

Wed. Sep. 21 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair &

Thu. Sep. 22 – South Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground Ballroom &

Fri. Sep. 23 – Montreal, QC @ Rialto Theatre &

Sat. Sep. 24 – Toronto, ON @ Virgin Mobile Mod Club &

Mon. Sep. 26 – Ferndale, MI @ The Loving Touch &

Tue. Sep. 27 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall &

Fri. Sep. 30 – St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway &

Sat. Oct. 1 – Asheville, NC @ Grey Eagle &

Thu. Oct. 13 – Brighton, UK @ Concord 2 #

Fri. Oct. 14 – Manchester, UK @ Club Academy #

Sat. Oct. 15 – Glasgow, UK @ SWG3 Studio Warehouse #

Sun. Oct. 16 – Bristol, UK @ The Marble Factory #

Mon. Oct. 17 – London, UK @ KOKO #

Wed. Oct. 19 – Hamburg, DE @ Kampnagel #

Thu. Oct. 20 – Copenhagen, DK @ Koncerthuset, Studie 2 #

Fri. Oct. 21 – Oslo, NO @ John Dee #

Sat. Oct. 22 – Stockholm, SE @ Debaser Strand #

Sun. Oct. 23 – Goeteborg, SE @ Pustervik #

Tue. Oct. 25 – Berlin, DE @ Columbia Theater #

Wed. Oct. 26 – Munich, DE @ Ampere #

Thu. Oct. 27 – Zuerich, CH @ Bogen F #

Fri. Oct. 28 – Koeln, DE @ Stadtgarten #

Sat. Oct. 29 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique #

Fri. Nov. 4 – Paris, FR @ La Gaîté Lyrique #

Sat. Nov. 5 – Den Haag, NL @ Crossing Border Festival

Sun. Nov. 6 – Amsterdam, NL @ Tolhuistuin #

* = with Alex Cameron

& = with Rodrigo Amarante

# = with Little Wings

 

Image: JagJaguwar

Comics Relief: CAPTAIN AMERICA’S Hydra Past Explained

Time for your mid-week edition of Comics Relief comics fans. We’ve got many news items on the docket this week, but first lets get all this Captain America nonsense out of the way. Read on for all the details…

The Truth About “HYDRA Cap” Revealed

Last month when it was revealed that Captain America was secretly a HYDRA agent, and had been all along, the internet lost its damn mind, as if they’ve never read a comic book before in their life. Well, lo and behold, this week the truth about “HYDRA Cap” has been revealed, and just as most of us who have been reading comics for more than five minutes assumed, it wasn’t what it was presented to be.

In this week’s second issue of Steve Rogers: Captain America, it’s revealed that Cap isn’t a Hydra agent; he only thinks he is because his memories have been tampered with by Kobik, the sentient Cosmic Cube that turned into a little girl during the Avengers: Standoff crossover, working together with Cap’s #1 foe, the Red Skull.

Said Marvel’s Axel Alonso:

Captain America, one of the most trusted superheroes in the Marvel universe, is not exactly who you think he is. He is operating with a different and sinister intent now and every interaction that we see from here on in will be shaded by that. That’s a story that Nick [Spencer] wanted to tell, and that’s a story that’s going to be fascinating for the next two months and a story that’s going to build to big, big things within the Marvel universe as well.

You can read our full story on the subject, and watch our Nerdist News re-cap on the Cap reveal -reveal, by clicking here: [Nerdist]

Marvel’s Latest Black Panther Commentary Video features new music by Prodigy of Mobb Deep feat. Mark the Beast

Marvel Comics is continuing to push their newest Black Panther ongoing series by putting out a second video commentary with writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. The video mixes together some Brian Stelfreeze art from the book, Coates’ commentary on the story, and music. The music used in this video is the world premiere of “Beast with It” by Prodigy of Mobb Deep Ft. Mark the Beast. The latest video is called Upheavel in Wakanda, and you can watch it above. [Marvel Entertainment]

Forgotten Golden Age Hero Silver Streak Might be Coming to Dark Horse Comics

He’s the superhero who can run at speeds no ordinary mortal can run. Nope, not the Flash. Not Quicksilver either. He’s…the Silver Streak! Wait, who? Well, he’s one of many comic book superheroes from the 40’s who have been lost to the mists of time, and are now in the public domain. He comes with a pedigree though, having been created by Captain America co-creater Joe Simon.

Now it is looking like publisher Dark Horse Comics, who have recently published several Silver Streak archive collections, have registered a trademark for the name. While it’s possible this only means that more archives are on their way, this may also suggest that new Silver Streak stories are on the way. Could the comics world use another speedster? Maybe we’ll find out soon. [Bleeding Cool]

Sonic the Hedgehog gets a 25th Anniversary Humble Bundle

Speaking of super fast comic book characters, Sonic the Hedgehog is turning 25 this year, and in celebration, publisher Archie Comics is teaming with Humble Bundle for a Sonic the Hedgehog 25th Anniversary comic bundle. This latest digital deal brings together just under $300 worth of comics. As with all Humble Bundles, you choose how much money you spend, and then how the money you spend is being divided between the publisher and charity. The Humble Comics Bundle: Sonic the Hedgehog sale runs from Wednesday, June 22, 2016 at 11 a.m. Pacific time until Wednesday, July 6, 2016 at 11 a.m. Pacific time. You can check out the bundle by clicking here. [Bleeding Cool]

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau Meets Alpha Flight

Obama isn’t the only head of state appearing on Marvel Comics covers these days. Now Canada’s Prime Minister is getting in on the Marvel action too. The space agency Alpha Flight — that was once famously Canada’s #1 super-team — is going back to its roots in Civil War II: Choosing Sides #5, teaming up with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trudeau will appear on a variant cover for Choosing Sides #5 in his trademark boxing gear, sporting a Canadian maple leaf drawn by artist Ramon Perez.

The story is being brought to us by Canadian writer/artist Chip Zdarsky, whose idea it was to include Trudeau. In the issue, Alpha Flight returns to Canada from their assignment in space to ask for some advice from the Canadian leader. Zdarsky explained, “I didn’t want this to just be like a walk-on … rescued by superheroes and he thanks them and that’s the end of the story. I think a lot of these real-life appearances in comics tend to go that way. I liked the idea of him actually engaging them in an ethical debate.” Civil War II: Choosing Sides #5 hits comic book shops on August 31. You can see the variant cover above. [Newsarama]

Del Rey’s Long Lost Manga Comes to iTunes

Although the Del Rey manga imprint has been defunt for six years now, if you’re a fan of some of those titles, then you’ll be happy to know they are making a comeback…in digital format. The four older manga series that are making a digital format comeback are School Rumble, Alive, Nodame Cantabile, and Princess Resurrection. All these titles will be available in the iTunes Store beginning on July 26. [Comic Book Resources]

Latest Marvel NOW! Teaser is A Bit of a Puzzle

Finally, Marvel Comics has released another “Divided” teaser for their upcoming Marvel NOW! initiative, but this one is going to be a little bit harder to make out than the ones we saw last week. It’s essentially a mosaic image, showing a lot of “divided” characters. Although a lot of the characters are a bit hard to pinpoint, you can see images of Elektra, Cable, Spider-Man (Miles Morales) and several others. Why are they all “divided”? Well, we still don’t know, but all should become clear this fall when Marvel NOW! rolls out. [CBR]

Images: Marvel Comics / Dark Horse Comics / Del Rey / Archie Comics

Inked Wednesday #94 – Joker, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, Mickey Vader, and More

If you can think of a version of The Joker, someone will have a tattoo version of it. Like many characters in comics, the villain has gone through many transformations over the decades depending on the story and the medium. And I’m not even counting all the fan art imaginings, because that number is impossibly high. Stephen Clayton’s inked version of The Joker is a back piece that features a sketch I haven’t seen before.

It perfectly captures the creepiness and maniacal tendencies of the rogue, don’t you think?

Joker (DC Comics) | Source: Stephen Clayton, inked by fecanes at Dublin Ink

I especially like how the laughter is turned into the jacket.

As usual, you’ll find even more ink in the gallery below. Keep scrolling to see a baby Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy, the Saint of Killers from Preacher, a fantastic Mickey Mouse and Darth Vader combo, and more.

Do you have any nerd-themed tattoos? They could be inspired by pop culture, math, literature–you name it. I’d like to see them and then include them in a future Inked Wednesday gallery. You can get pictures of your ink to me by leaving links in the comments, tagging or mentioning me on Instagram (but not direct messages, please), or sending photos to me on Twitter. Heck, you can even email me at alratcliffe at yahoo dot com. Don’t forget to let me know the name of your tattoo artist because giving credit where it’s due is important and stuff.

Elon Musk’s Favorite Animal is the Stupidest Creature in the Entire Universe

Almost everything that can’t-prove-he’s-not-Iron-Man Elon Musk does, muses, or tweets makes the nerd news. Maybe it’s that we’re all waiting for him to save the (simulated) world. Maybe it’s that his many companies are doing inspiring things both extra-terrestrially and terrestrially. Or maybe it’s because Musk constantly hints at an intensely geeky side of him that we rarely get to see, and so we’re always looking.

Case-in-point: When his son asked him what his favorite animal was, he didn’t say something like a cheetah or a shark or a red panda (objectively the best animal). No, he went way nerdier:

My son recently asked what my favorite animal was. Well, of course … https://t.co/hpTniMe1mF

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 29, 2016

That’s right, Musk’s favorite animal is the “the stupidest creature in the entire universe”: The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast Of Traal from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s an animals so stupid, that it believes if you can’t see it, it can’t see you. Therefore, the best way to deal with the beast — head-on would be a bad idea, given it has “several dozen tungsten-carbide Vast-Pain claws, skin like a motorway, and breath like a 747” — is by putting a towel over your head. You can’t see it, so it must not be able to see you, and you slink away.

Or, according to the old Hitchhiker’s Guide PC game, you can simply carve your name into the stone where the beast carves all its victims’ names. Since the name wouldn’t be there without you having already been eaten, you are free to go. Problem solved. I imagine the same kind of problem solving goes on at SpaceX.

What do you think? What is your favorite fictional animal? Let us know in the comments below.

Images: Nerdist

Watch Tony Hawk Land A 900 at 48-Years-Old

In 1999, Tony Hawk landed the first(?) 900, a trick where the skateboarder makes two-and-a-half horizontal spins in the air before landing. Hawk was 31 at the time, which means that today, the legendary skateboarder is 48 years old, and believe it or not, he is still able to land the insanely difficult maneuver.

Yesterday was the 17-year anniversary of Hawk’s first successful 900, so in a video posted yesterday by RIDE, Hawk decided he should see if he still has what it takes to pull it off. Heading to the half-pipe, Hawk tells the camera, “I’m going to try a 900 today, because I feel like I can. I never thought I’d be doing this at my age, when I was young. I really didn’t think that was a possibility. But I’m still going, and I’ll keep going until the wheels fall off, I guess.”

Hawk also said this would likely be his last time attempting the 900, so he had to make it count. It took a few tries and many falls, as the video documents, but after a couple minutes of in-video time, he pulled it off gracefully. It’s amazing that a man who helped shape video games with his eponymous series can still do things in real life that are tough even in a virtual environment.

Watch both the 2016 and 1999 attempts at the 900 above, and let us know what type of athletic feats you imagine yourselves doing at nearly half a century old. If you’re picturing yourself doing something like this, well, we admire your confidence.

Image: TimothyJ

You Can Now Uber a Hot Air Balloon

Anybody can call an Uber and get to their destination via car. Really, it’s kind of getting a bit tired, right? Aren’t you ready to wow your friends, family, and colleagues by arriving places in something a bit more impressive? Well Uber’s got your back, because they are launching a way to let certain Uber members actually call a hot air balloon or a boat when they need a ride.

I’m being totally serious, too.

As Gizmodo reports, the ridiculous-yet-wonderful feature will only be available to Uber users in China (for now, anyway). The company announced its ride sharing vehicle additions at TechCrunch Shanghai, and is introducing the creative commuting choices thanks to some pretty heated competition in China with ride-sharing rival Didi Chuxing. Responding to fierce competition over customers, Uber China made the logical next step when fighting for customers on the roads–they took to the air and to the seas. Because I know that when I need a ride home after a night out with the girls, the best option is to ride precariously perched in a basket or bouncing about on choppy seas. I guess.

For now, us American Uber users will have to still get our rides on the roads in cars like cavemen, but there is always the hope that if the program really takes off in China that it might make its way to other countries. After all, if you’re going to get violently seasick or get an extreme case of vertigo, you might as well have a crazy story to go with it, right?

Would you ever use an Uber hot air balloon or an Uber boat? What crazy vehicle do you want Uber to start adding to their ride-sharing service? Tell us what you think in the comments!

Image credit: Jon Collier/ImNotQuiteJack on Flickr.com

You Can Pour this Weird Liquid Uphill

We are so used to liquid water that seeing a liquid do anything but flow the way water does is mind-boggling. Take, for example, polyethylene oxide or PEO. PEO is a polymer-based liquid — it’s the same lubricant that coats the leading edge of your shaving razors — but it doesn’t move with discrete molecules like H2O does. It flows in long chains that tug on each other. These chains mean that if even a bit of PEO is poured out of a beaker, the rest comes with it.

In the video above, science YouTuber Steve Mould demonstrates this curious property with a purple glop of PEO. It truly is bizarre to watch. The polymer chains that link the fluid together defy gravity, as the mass pouring out of the beaker pulls hard enough on the rest to bring it along.

The British science/quiz show hosted by Stephen Fry, QI, also demonstrated the gooey weirdness that is PEO, this time using mix with added phosphorescent compounds and some black lights:

This isn’t the first time Mould has been fascinated with fluid flow. A few years back, he popularized the “Mould Effect,” where a beaker full of metal beads will self-siphon up, over, and out of a beaker. This video and many like it inspired actual physics papers, so take a look:

What do you think? Impressed by the weirdness? Think this is the stuff they should have used on Double Dare 2000? Let us know in the comments below.

Images: Steve Mould