For those of you out there who have the theme song from Double Dragon, Excite Bike, Mario Bros, Mega Man, or Final fantasy burned into your brain from back in the day (even if that means yesterday), you’re not alone. 8-bit music, which takes tons of these nostalgic tunes from your favorite NES and GameBoy games and converts them into fast, fun, dance-tastic ensembles, has been revolutionizing the music industry across the world. Also known as chip tune, this wave of timeless new music is bringing back all of our inner geeks one show at a time.

We joined the folks on the forefront of this musical frontier at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco, where artists like Crash Faster, A Rival, and Anamanaguchi dive into the logistics of what it takes to become an 8-bit master and why this genre has become so popular! We know the secret and now you can too; watch and find out!!!

Episode links: Chiptune, Anamanaguchi, crashfaster, A_Rival

His albums have deep methologies that are often intertwined with each other. For example, Dr. Octagonecologyst introduces the character of Dr. Octagon, an extraterrestrial time traveling gynecologist and surgeon who is later killed by his nemesis Dr. Doom on a later record. Some of the most famous DJ’s in the world — Dan Nakamura, DJ Qbert, Kutmaster Kurt, DJ Shadow, etc. — have worked with KK, even right here in our fair city! Dan the Automator recorded and mixed Sex Style at The Glue Factory in San Francisco, California.

Kool Keith is not a Billboart chart-topping rapper, but he’s a master wordsmith, thinker and willing to take musical risks many rappers don’t even know are possible. Don’t be surprised if you find some of his characters or songs not to your liking. KK is a chameleon.
My voice is also in the beginning of a Princess Superstar song called “Kool Keith’s Butt.” So I’m a fangirl, I cant front.

in Part Two, KK gives me dating tips and talks to me about the limitations of technology.

Episode links: Kool Keith, Dr. Octagon, Dan the Automator

If you’ve ever thought “KISS is my favorite rock band” and/or “Man I wish I was someone else today,” then you have something in common with hip hop legend Kool Keith. Because Mr. Keith Matthew Thornton aka Dr. Octagon aka Dr. Doom aka Kool Keith aka Robbie Analog aka Clean Man aka Mr. Green aka Willie Large aka … well, we don’t have time or space to name 60 of the master rapper’s aliases. But he started out with the Ultramagnetic MC’s, a Bronx-based hip hop group that every head knows well.

When Kool Keith was in town to perform a show in San Francisco at 111 Minna, I called the promoter and was lucky enough to get the interview. This meeting was not the first time I met KK. My first introduction to him was in NYC in the fall of 1999 when he was on his Black Elvis tour. I also met his parents and helped him tie a cape around his neck and watched as he threw fried chicken at the audience.

Keith and I sat in his Marriot hotel room bed for an hour, so we had to cut the interview into two parts. Please enjoy Part One. In Part Two next week, we will cover Keith’s fashion and Dating Tips.

Episode links: Kool Keith, Dan the Automator

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

An epic naval battle of amazing proportions! “Amazing” being miniature and “epic” being, well, let’s just say we had to wear eye goggles. Really! The incredibly talented seamen hand-crafted the robotic warships and controlled them from the side of Maker Faire ocean with radio remote controls, shooting 1/4″ diameter steel balls from their ships’ torpedo tubes. The ship models are replicas mostly from World War II, but one brave soul brought out his tiny pirate vessel. The battle known as Axis vs. Allies, meaning that all the ships had at some point in history fought for either side, in World War I or II. Founded in 1986, Western Warship Combat Club puts on all kinds of events, as we learned from Dan Rygasewicz, a founder. Dan also said that if you have ever put a firecracker in a toy boat in your bathtub, you will know exactly why playing with toy boats in the water is so mesmerizing.

Episode links: Western Warship Combat Club, Maker Faire

Travel with us back in time, back to Victorian days when men wore corsets, ladies wrote letters and the computers were steam-powered. What?? That’s right! Steampunk takes you back to a past that never was, and flies you in a dirigible to a future that will never be. What is steampunk? Take a look and find out!

Episode links: Steampunk [wikipedia], Steampunk Airmail Letter Project, Artist Suzanne Forbes, Maker Faire

The GETV crew ran into Utilikilt clad Alex Peake at Maker Faire because of a rumor that he was making Tactical Corsets! With beautiful model at the ready, Irina and Alex unzip the mysteries of this military grade corset. What’s a tactical corset you ask? Here’s how TacticalCorsets.com describes them:

Tactical Corsets are high-fashion, high-function clothes for empowered women! For too long, women have had to compromise practicality for beauty. Men got pants with cargo pockets and built-in knee pads, women got clothes whose only built-in feature was cuteness. But why should men get all the high-speed low-drag tactical toys? Tactical Corsets bring female operators MILSPEC features like MOLLE modular pouch attachment webbing and self-adjustable quick-release buckles in a load-bearing carrier designed to support the female form.

(Thanks to our guest editor, Wilfred Galila, who is hovering above the thin line between good and evil and in constant pursuit for the understanding of the human condition and man’s place in the cosmos.)

Episode links: Tactical Corsets, Alex Peake, Artist Suzanne Forbes, Cimmerians

Luke Jackson is a Canadian musician who recently collaborated with animator Murray John to create this music video, using stop motion photography and 2-D animation, for Lukeâ€s song “Goodbye London”. Hereâ€s what Luke has to say about the videoâ€s production:

As far as the video itself is concerned, I approached London-based animator Murray John with the idea of creating a video that highlighted the bittersweet sentiment of the song’s lyric. I suggested that some of the video be very literal interpretation of the lyric, but that he should feel free to depart from that at will, which I think he did beautifully. He came up with the photo/animation idea as well as the characters and drafted a rough storyboard, most of which wound up in the finished piece. All the stop motion photos were taken around London, and Murray added the drawn 2-D animation using After Effects. There’s no actual video at all…it’s all photos. We never met each other until the video was almost finished, it was all done via email correspondence. I was in London on a family visit in May and he shot the photos of me for the start of the second verse.

You’ve heard this one before. Big faceless corporate giant who makes adorable product goes after small-time fanboy who loves adorable product. In this case, it’s the PEZ Candy Company suing Gary Doss, the owner and curator of a museum of PEZ memorabilia. Gary has run the Burlingame Museum of PEZ Memorabilia for 14 years and this isn’t the first time evil faceless PEZ has tried to shut him down. PEZ’s latest demand includes the destruction of Gary’s adorable oversized snowman dispenser of PEZ that you’ll see in this video.

Our tour of Gary’s museum of PEZ was shot 2 years ago, long before his current legal situation, so we’re rerunning it. Irina and iJustine, who happened to be in town then, take you on a tour of the amazing, wonderful and hopefully, longer lived Museum of PEZ Memorabilia.

Episode links: Burlingame Museum of PEZ (david), PEZ Candy Company (goliath), Boston Herald: Co. sues Pez ‘museum’, San Jose Merc News: All we are saying is, give Pez a chance, iJustine

Irina met Kevin Moore on Flickr a while back, swooning over a photo of his black kitty kat. Little did she know this geek was a specialist in a different kind of kitty! Turns out Kevin shoots, directs and edits adult movies. Who knew! With his nerdy background as a Unix admin, a wrangler of college intranet tubes for his buddies gaming pleasures, a WoW and Quake player, and a committed boyfriend to Nina — his one-time attention seeking girlfriend who let him take photos of her and charge cash money for letting other dudes see her nekkid! So, when we ran into Kevin back in Jan at the Adult Entertainment Expo, Irina sat him down for a dorky session of chit chat. Enjoy!

Episode links: Kevin Moore, Kevin’s Flickr Pix, AVN Adult Entertainment Expo

Joss Whedon’s Firefly and Serenity left a giant indelible mark in the wild west of modern science fiction, leaving rabid fans wanting more, much more. Rather than wait for Fox or NBC to come around and maybe give fans what they crave, some fans have taken it upon themselves to extend the Firefly story themselves. Browncoats: Redemption is not your typical fan flick. This one has a compelling story, a tight script, elaborate well lit sets, actors who know how to act, all shot on RED cameras and to top it all off, for charity! Well into principal production, Redemption is looking a lot like what die hard fans have been clamoring for. Joss Whedon has reportedly given the production his thumbs up, with some of his and Serenity/Firefly cast members’ charities standing to benefit.

Scott Stead, GETV Field Contributor in Washington, DC, visits the Redemption set during principal shooting and speaks with creators/producers Steven J. Fisher and Michael C. Dougherty as well as several of the film’s cast members.

Episode links: Browncoats:Redemption, Scott Stead, Serenity, Firefly, Joss Whedon

When our pal Kevin Smokler slid us the opportunity to interview one of the legendary thinkers and writers of the geekosphere, we pounced on the chance. Chris Anderson resuscitated Wired magazine back from the brink of the geek deadpool and is notable for coining the term The Long Tail, which he penned a book on. Chris is about to release his second book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price, which is already generating controversy on a couple of fronts.

One never to rest, Chris also recently launched BookTour.com, a site for authors to more easily line up and promote their book tours and for fans to easily find and meet up with their favorite authors. Chris, like us, is also a big fan of ‘maker’ culture and is busy building drone airplanes based on open source hardware. A subject we’ll save for another episode.

Episode links: Chris Anderson, The Long Tail blog, Wired, BookTour, Free: The Future of the Radical Price, DIY Drones, Ning, VQR (criticism)

Which comes first, the music or the video? The question is moot now that artisan Ben Lewry of Visionary Instruments, has built an LCD video display into his guitar. After several prototypes, his custom video guitars now can run visualizations or movies by simply popping in a USB thumbdrive into a back panel. Visualizations can even be triggered with MIDI signals by playing the guitar. Steven Wilson, of Porcupine Tree, was so taken by Ben’s designs that he’s now rocking a video guitar to sold out shows around the world.

Episode links: Visionary Instruments, Porcupine Tree, Diane Nitschke [photos], Maker Faire

It’s true. The future is here. Really. Anything you can dream in 3D can be made real. MakerBot’s affordable Cupcake CNC, a slightly larger than a breadbox 3D printer, will take your 3D modeled dreams and make them manifest. MakerBot’s Bre Pettis, a man who knows how a lot about making robots and dreams come true, gives Irina the skinny on what MakerBot is and how it works.

Episode links: MakerBot, Bre Pettis, Thingiverse, Google SketchUp, Blender, Forkbot, Martha Vader, Maker Faire 2009

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

For our third installment of TechCab Confessions we have uber nerdcore rapper (the one who coined the term!) MC Frontalot take the hot seat, err, back seat of the taxi. For those of you joining us in medias res, GETV’s TechCab series takes geeks for a ride while they confess their technological sins to a live streaming camera for all the world to see. In this episode, we are honored to have Front — as he’s known to his fans — take a break from performing at SXSW and promoting his latest album Final Boss to tell us a whopper of a story for which, we are happy to say, the statute of limitations has TOTALLY and COMPLETELY expired. A great hacker caper of yore, involving the inaugural Lillith Fair, the Levi’s website and an amateur musician’s online contest — all this, and someone ended up in jail after all! We’ll just leave that to the great nerdcore rapper and elegant hacker to tell you the rest.

Episode links: TechCab Confessions, MC Frontalot, essence, Lilith Fair, guest editor: Madge Weinstein, photo credits: jeans, cookie, steel barbie, angy barbie, stiff barbie, pants down, seattle coffee

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

Now for a second installment of our Tech Cab Confessions series, we have none other than NonSociety’s Julia Allison, who answers Irina’s never-ending query of how geeks have “destroyed themselves of others” on the internet. In case you are new to our Tech Cab, Irina drove around Austin, picking up her victims, oops, we mean fares, who confessed live on camera their deepest secrets and sins to you, our fair viewers. Julia Allison has written for Time Out New York, Star Magazine, Huffington Post, and has reported for MSNBC and Fox. In this confession, Julia drops her guard and dishes on her ex-boyfriend Jake Lodwick (one of the founders of Vimeo), her non-relationship with Kevin Rose, her decision to quit self-promoting herself, her realization that people were laughing at her and not with her, and gives advice to little girls about to embark on a career in internet fame. What a confession, what raw material for guest editor Richard Bluestein to mold into an episode. Who’s Richard you ask? Why, he’s Madge Weinstein, host of Yeast Radio, one of the most popular podcasts in the history of the internet. We think Madge and Irina were related in a prior immigration experience, but they’re all hush hush. They definitely share at least one organ, but they won’t say which one.

Episode links: TechCab Confessions, Julia Allison, NonSociety, Madge Weinstein

Is it really possible to get over 1,000 miles out of single tank of gas? If you are a “hypermiler”, you know this to be true. This week we’re doing something a little different here at GETV. Our new field contributor Scott Stead in Washington, DC, has been following the Ford 1000 Mile Challenge. Scott gets the lowdown on hypermiling from the original hypermiler himself Wayne Gerdes, and NASCAR racer Carl Edwards, who is no slacker for a challenge. Extreme gas mileage using some fairly ordinary driving optimization tricks is something we can all get behind.

Episode links: Hypermiling, Ford Fusion Gets 81.5 MPG, Ford Fusion Hybrid 1000 Mile Challenge, CleanMPG, Wayne Gerdes, Carl Edwards, Scott Stead

Thanks to our friends at Intel, Irina and editor Kevin flew to Portland where not only did they get to tour the top secret chip-making labs (no camera’s allowed) but they met some disprutive tech guys in the realm of CAPTCHAs. You may not know what a CAPTCHA is, but we’re pretty sure you’ve used one or two or three. OK, so if someone asks you what’s a CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) and you wanna sound annoying and smart just say, “It’s a reverse Turing test.” Hee. Basically, it’s a way for the computer to tell if you’re a human or a bot to prevent comment spam on blogs (or on YouTube, etc) or, more importantly, to prevent bots from infiltrating consumer sites. Since the average failure rate of traditional CAPTCHA technolgy is about 20 percent, bots can mess up a lot of shopping. We’ve heard that Ticketmaster loses as much as 12 percent of their sales to potential ticket buyers who drop out because they can’t get past the CAPTCHA. So, if you can ignore Irina’s combover hairstyle in this episode, we check in with the guys from Vidoop and hear what they have to say. Oh yeah, this subject would not be complete without referencing a little Blade Runner and the Voight-Kampff test.

Episode links: CAPTCHA, Vidoop, Voight-Kampff

For our 200th episode, we get sorta serious with the subject matter, but dont worry, there’s still LOLcats involved. We talk to a very esoteric and smarty-pants guy, Columbia University law school professor Tim Wu (he’s hot too! but married) — he’s the guy who even the FCC trusts to help them make fair laws about such things as the AT&T and BellSouth merger. Professor Wu is credited with popularizing the concept of “network neutrality” in his 2003 paper Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination. In 2006, he co-authored the book, Who Controls the Internet? Network neutrality is essential to free speech, equal opportunity and economic innovation in America, so if you use the internet — or at least, if you watch porn on the internet — here’s your chance to learn exactly why you should care. Also, after you watch this episode, you can sound super smart at all those parties you go to with your social networking friends. During 2008, Wu served as an adviser to the Barack Obama presidential campaign.

Episode links: Tim Wu (wikipedia), Tim Wu (personal), network neutrality

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

We know in your drunken stupor you all forgot that you went to SXSW and Texas last month, never mind what you confessed to Irina as she drove you around in our gloriously luxurious TechCab …. But guess what, it’s all on tape for ever and ever and ever on the internet! After our newest editor Kevin and intern Calum (he lives in Nova Scotia!) slaved over hours of footage, we’ve put together a few precious secrets that fell only on Irina’s lovely door-knocker-earringed ears….and the entire internet! First, we start off with our own and dear blip.tv coder Justin Day (next to him is blip.tv’s money man Ryan Chambers) — Justin recounts how he tortured his fellow students in college with spontaneous eruptions of solitaire. Cali Lewis, a queen of geeks if ever there was one — takes a ride with Irina and Eddie in her pajamas with her miniature daschund Zoe and explains how she dissed Jason Calacanis. Cali is SO not sinful, I had to give her a little nudge there. Rudy Jahchan and Casey McKinnon take a ride during which Rudy describes how — through hacking skills — he drove a colleage 1) out of his department and 2) insane. See if you can guess which tech celebrity videoblogging god Steve Woolf is talking about in his confession. Ellie Rountree’s story from Rocketboom involves a bottle of wine, breaking NY State law and Justin.tv —- and its still available online! TechCab fun for everyone.

Episode links: TechCab Confessions, Justin Day, Cali Lewis, Rudy Jahchan, Steve Woolf, Ellie Rountree

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

So we all know RZA is one of the greatest rappers of all time. But did you guys know he’s a total geek out gangsta? At another of RZA’s Hip-Hop Chess events, we ask him to tell us his thoughts about technology and the internet. And the Wu Tang leader schools Irina, telling her to GO OUTSIDE. That probably won’t work. Also at the chess party, Rakaa of Dilated Peoples reflects about the first time he “touched” the Internet and Irina reveals that in 1997 she used to hide out in chat rooms and spit rhymes, pretending she was a boy. Besides the internationally known rappers, we also hear from a local young musician who has never lived without the internet. He is 18-year-old V, and he loves to help his mother with Microsoft Word. Enjoy the joy! (Big thanks to Kevin Zupancic for his shooting and editing skills on this episode!)

Episode links: RZA, Wu-Tang Clan, Hip-Hop Chess Federation, Rakaa, Dilated Peoples, WuChess, John O’Connell High School (San Francisco)

Jonas Luster is man of many hats: video game designer, chef, opinionated loudmouth, humanitarian, peace keeper and now a father. In this expose, Jonas tells us a bit about the world of MMORPGs, something he’s intimately familiar with.

Episode links: Jonas Luster, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars

For the first time ever, GETV heads over to WonderCon and Irina’s fears of growing up without coming books and not knowing enough about super heroes were allayed. Attacked by a hot baby-dyke version of the Joker, she is saved by hot baby-dyke Batman and Robin! She also hears “these aren’t the droids you’re looking for” and finds out exactly which droids you WERE looking for (the answer is after the credits. We also meet up with a Darth Vader and discover that the force of the dark side is strong on Twitter. WonderCon is a truly a wonder to behold. Go forth geeks and enjoy!

Episode links: WonderCon, A-1 Comics, Anthony Forrest, Ron Lim, Darth Vader on Twitter

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

We like Twitter so much, we’re bringing you a second installment of Hot Twitter Habits. Some might even say scandalous! We find out what a bunch of drunken San Francisco tweetizens had to say about twittering on the can, following and celebrity identities. You know you want to know. Watch, then reveal your Twitter habits to us in the comments.

Episode links: Twitter, TwestivalSF, @mutgoff, @afgascoigne, @sarahlane, @kevinrose, @wesmax27, @bostonita, @krystyl, @biz, @VirginAmerica, @medized, @dalelarson, @irinaslutsky

Now that Twitter has hit the mainstream, let’s find out how the masses use their beloved service. In this first episode of two, we stop by the Twestival event to discover what some San Francisco tweetizens’ first Twitter posts were as well as how some use the service in more intimate of ways. You’ll need to watch to get the dirt. If you have no idea what any of this means, it’s time to come out of hibernation. The cave is a cold and lonely place. What was your first tweet? Tell us in the comments.

Episode links: Twitter, TwestivalSF, @mutgoff, @afgascoigne, @sarahlane, @kevinrose, @wesmax27, @bostonita, @krystyl, @biz, @VirginAmerica, @medized, @dalelarson, @irinaslutsky

If you happen to be a daily TWiT watcher, you may have caught Leo Laporte and Irina doing some improvisational sketch comedy. Leo and Irina are pretty wacky together, their imaginations flowing as freely as dry-erase markers on a whiteboard. All Leo knew was that Irina wanted to tie him to a chair and that she was a Russian spy interrogating him about his Emmy win, his streaking history and his status as the father of all media — all three are true facts that can be found on Leo’s wikipedia article. Enjoy the insanity!

Episode links: Leo Laporte, TWiT

For the first time in GETV history, the crew went to the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas, canoodling with porn stars, directors and producers. Braving this new world, Irina scored an interview with uberstar Tera Patrick and her husband Evan Seinfeld. Tera, besides being so gorgeous that she’s hard to look at dead on, has a character in the video game Saints Row 2! And turns out Evan has done voices in the Grand Theft Auto franchise as well. Not only do they work in gaming, they also tell us what they like to play, taking us all the way back to PONG. Irina even recognized one male star! Evan Stone is the lead in both “Pirates I” and “Pirates II,” the most expensive films in the history of adult movies. Evan is a gamer geek and gives out his handle, so you guys can beat him on the joysticks. Then we find an up-and-coming porn star who’s on Twitter and wears fresh kicks, not clear platform shoes! Unfortunately for Irina, Justin Slayer did not come this year.

Episode links: Adult Entertainment Expo, Evan Stone, Tera Patrick, Evan Seinfeld, Stevie Hart, Satine Phoenix, Buck Angel, Nikki Jayne, Paul Thomas

On this eve of historic change in America, we visit the Manifest Hope: DC gallery exhibition in Washington, DC. Manifest Hope: DC is a hopeful and moving collection of works by over 100 of the nation’s artists, celebrating the grassroots movement that ushered Barack Obama into the presidency.

First time guest “Change Correspondent” Ali Bates Fisher speaks with Yosi Sergant, curator and producer of the exhibition, as well as a few of the exhibiting artists, Aniakon, Ron English, Margaret Cusack and Derek Gores. This was a momentous time to be in Washington, something most of the world won’t soon forget.

Episode links: Manifest Hope: DC, Yosi Sergant, Ron English, Margaret Cusack, Derek Gores, Shepard Fairey, Will.i.am

GETV was invited by Intel to come to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and we were happy to go. While every other new outlet was happy covering the Palm Pre (thinner than Nicole Ritchie, they say!) and the best blu-rays, GETV decided to go where the PEOPLE went! The most crowded booths at CES 2009 were the massage chair booths, so we sent our massage chair correspondend iJustine to scope out the best massage chair releases of 2009 and tech pundit Xeni Jardin gave us her input. Drew Carey provided some potical advice for Obama’s tech platform and Eric Lin was the naysayer in the group. If you think you know what happened at CES 2009, you have no idea.

Episode links: CES 2009, iJustine, Xeni Jardin, Drew Carey, Eric Lin

We know there was some tech news at Macworld, but the only talk we heard was all about Steve Jobs’ absence from Apple’s party of the year and his fans’ speculation about his health. GETV is as grateful to Steve as any dedicated fanboy, but we still need to do our job = make you smile! We figured you already know about the 17-hour battery and all that, so here’s something that will remind you that Steve is pretty zen about this mortal coil and that this universe is a better place with him in it, whether this is the last Macworld or not.

Episode links: Macworld Expo

You may not know 24-year-old Aza Raskin’s name, but if you are reading this in a Firefox browser on a Mac then you should say a big huge thank you to his family. Aza’s late father Jef started the Macintosh project at Apple. YES. And Aza is the user interface designer at Mozilla Labs. Honestly, Irina doesn’t often find herself at a loss for jokes, but this guy was kind of hard to make fun of at first try! We’ll have to bring him back for sure. Aza is also the founder of Humanized, Inc., Songza, and Bloxes, and President of the Raskin Center for Humane Interfaces. And he likes puns, so leave some in the comments.

Episode links: Aza Raskin, Jef Raskin, Mozilla Labs, Humanized, Songza

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

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

It just about time for the Second Annual Chess Kings Invitational and Scholarship Exhibition Tournament brought to you by none other than the Bay Area’s own Hip Hop Chess Federation! That’s quite a mouthful, but say it again cuz it’s worth it. With help from friends like the Wu Tang Clan, HHCF has given out more than $10,000 in scholarships, and they only started last year. Irina met with HHCF founder Adisa Banjoko at O’Connell high school in San Francisco where kids are already practicing their skills on the chess boards, getting ready for the February event. Adisa reminisces about his days in the Bay Area’s hip hop scene when he hung out with legends like….wait for it….Tupak Shakur. The boss of online chess site Chess Park promises to teach Irina to play and two high school students talk about their chess strategies. See you on the 64!

Episode links: Chesspark, WuChess, 9queens, Hip Hop Chess Federation

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

In this episode, Irina found herself an embedded reporter in the manly brown leather and earthy wood enclave of serious tech guru Leo Laporte. In case you haven’t listened to or watched one of Leo’s 14 netcasts, feel free to Google his name. Not only is he famous on the Internet, he’s also won an Emmy for his work on MSNBC. At Leo’s cottage studio in Petaluma, Irina and producer Nick were surrounded by microphones and were LIVE on TWiT — Leo’s daily tech talk show — as they recorded two episodes of GETV — one you see here and one for a later surprise. Being live is not something Irina is used to, so some regular TWiT viewers gave her a talking to in the chatroom! But Leo’s candid interview is a treat for his fans — he tells us his first crush was a man (leo WAS wearing a pink shirt) and reminisces about the summer of 1970 when he wore a blazer and an ascot. His family moved from the east coast to Santa Cruz where young Leo was shocked to see a girl in a bikini! Leo is his incredibly charming self and he talks about always giving the audience what they want! Here at GETV, we BLEED for our audience and we certainly never worry about our ratings. So what do you want next? Tell us at media@geekentertainment.tv.

Episode links: Leo Laporte, TWiT

While Irina was in NYC doing fancy schmancy things for Columbia Journalism School, she called her long-time Flickr friend and graffiti artist Royce Bannon to catch up. Irina met Royce when he was the photo editor of The Source hip hop magazine — he sent her a hand-painted tshirt that she wore an early episode of GETV. Irina and Royce discuss how he got into what he’s into. Royce Bannon aka R. Bizzle is a member of New York’s infamous Endless Love Crew and his work will be on display on the west coast at LA’s ThinkSpace Gallery from Jan. 9 – Feb 6, 2009 in a show called “From the Streets of Brooklyn.” (GETV would like to thank Matt Matossian of For Your Imagination Studios in NY who shot this episode for us. He is also the world-famous Shirtless Apprentice)

Episode links: Royce Bannon (myspace), (photos), Endless Love Crew, Diamond Headz, ThinkSpace Gallery, GETV: Charlie’s Real Life Chocolate Factory

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

So this episode is what happens when our own wacky lady Irina meets an even wackier lady, Leslie Hall. In case you dont know Leslie Hall, she’s best known for her Gem Sweater Museum and her incredible hip-hop influenced music videos, like “Shoot them in the Brain.” Leslie has toured the world with her music and gem sweater collection, but chooses to live with her parents in Ames, Iowa. After arriving at MIT’s ROFLCon and waiting in line behind the likes of NPR, Wired and the UK Observer to interview Leslie, we decided that instead of asking Leslie the same ten questions over again, we’d do something different! So Irina handed Leslie the mic and here’s what happened. It’s a little strange.

Episode links: Leslie Hall, Gem Sweater, ROFLCon

By any non-petroleum means necessary. That is the motto that propels a dozen vehicles of various design along the “Escape from Berkeley” road rally from Berkeley, California to Las Vegas, Nevada. Part Cannonball Run and part Mad Max, these NASA scientists and junkyard fabricators aim to complete the rally, win the $5000 prize and forever cement their place in history. All fuel has to harvested along the route, none of it can be purchased. GETV’s Roving RoboReporter Violet Blue chats up a few of the eclectic participants who run their vehicles on switchgrass, wood chips, veggie oil and even a tasty bio-salad. The brilliance of the event has even put Stephen Colbert on notice.

Episode links: Escape from Berkeley, The Shipyard, Michael Michael, The Green Team, Prisoners of Petroleum, All Power Labs, The Spooning Cruisers (music), Photos (Laughing Squid), Colbert Report clip, Violet Blue

When Bryce Case, Jr. aka YT Cracker called the GETV team to say he was in San Francisco to record an album with MC Lars, Irina had an idea. “Let’s make a rap video!” she said to the two pillars of nerdcore, who emailed her a song immediately. A few days later, Irina and producer Nick the Dude rudely interrupted the musicians, threw them in a car and drove to the mission, where they filmed a video to go along with “Manifest Destiny.” Here is what Bryce wrote about the song:

“Manifest Destiny” is a song loosely about humans’ need to conquer and assimilate by metaphorically alluding to the eponymous period in the American Old West. Chiefly, human nature hasn’t changed, and the attitude of manifest destiny strongly relates to the modern day, specifically the Internet. In people selfishly following their own interests, naturally good and bad consequences arise. The Rondo Brothers produced the beat for us one night and the next day when we went back to their studio, Brandon played the instrumental and immediately thought manifest destiny would be a great topic for asong. Lars and I wrote the lyrics on the spot and a hit song was born.

Episode links: YTCracker, MC Lars, digital gangster, The Way of the West (footage), user Stomp (crowd sounds)

If you’re watching this episode and don’t know what a LOLcat is, that’s like going to France and not knowing what’s inside an escargot shell. But never fear, we try to ‘splain it to you in the first few moments so that everyone, n00bs and all, can have fun at the LOLzoo! Creators of the wonderfully funny icanhascheezburger site met up in San Francisco’s animal habitat to celebrate the publication of their book, for which they had to cull through millions of images of LOLcats so you can enjoy them in the comfort of your own home. GETV was on hand to interview hoomans and animals to get their thoughts on all kinds of issues — language, domiciles, noms and LOLs!

Episode links: I Can Has Cheezburger, I Can Has Cheezburger book, SF Zoo, Doctor Popular (LOLcats song), Barce, Pete Cashmore

For the 11th year in a row, San Francisco film geeks came to worship at the Church of Peaches Christ this past summer of 2008. In case you are one of the uninitiated and unbaptized, the annual two-month-long event known as Midnight Mass is much more than a midnight movie. Irina sat down with the film freak phenom founder and creator, Peaches Christ aka Joshua Grannell, and got down to the nitty gritty details of how a humble (well, maybe not so humble) film student turned into a cult movie diva 2.0, became friends with John Waters, got her own VH1 show, started a religious movement, an SF film festival and got the man behind “Jaw Breaker” to produce her own feature film — titled “All About Evil” due out end of 2009 — and in general, spewed all kinds of fabulosity into the world of film geeks worldwide. Oh, and single-handedly created the status of “Showgirls” as a cult classic. Guests at Midnight Mass have included at least one person you and Rosie Palmer fantasized about during the early days of late night television. (Special shooting & post production thanks to Karim Amira)

Episode links: Peaches Christ

You think you know, but you have no idea…..how tough Chuck Norris really is until you read Ian Spector’s book “The Truth About Chuck Norris: 400 Facts About the World’s Greatest Human.” GETV caught up with Ian at MIT’s ROFLcon and – despite the fact that Irina only knows about “Walker, Texas Ranger” because it comes on after two back-to-back episodes of “Murder, She Wrote” – got to the core of the Ian’s obsession about Chuck. Or at least figured out that Chuck is suing Ian so we really couldn’t talk that much about what Chuck thinks about Ian, but Irina did make plans with the under-21-year-old author to sneak him into a bar for some illegal drinking. The book has since become a best-seller and we hope will pay for Ian’s medical school bills. (Special post production thanks to Jonny Dailey).

Episode links: Chuck Norris Facts, The Truth About Chuck Norris: Facts About the World’s Greatest Human, Chuck Norris (official site), Chuck Norris on Chuck Norris Facts, Walker, Texas Ranger, Murder, She Wrote

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away…. well, ok maybe not THAT long ago, but in internet years it feels like forever since the musical Vlog Deathmatch challenge that Doc Pop and Irina (almost) pwned in May 2007! We decided to repost the video here during the week that our new producer Nick settles into San Francisco — he just drove cross country from Buffalo, NY! The Vlog Deathmatch is a community event that is open to anyone who wants to throw down a challenge to the vlogging peeps (basically, anyone with a camera) — so when we heard about the music video challenge, Irina knew she wanted to use her rapping skills (ahem) to kill the other vloggers! GRRR! Memorable Vlog Deathmatchers include Veronica Belmont, who won for best air guitar video and the Rey Brothers for some really unmentionable monologue challenge, but their promotional video is a winner in my book! Miss Behavens for Lake Titicaca in the Drunk Underwear Karaoke challenge and another mindblowing promo from Casey McKinnon! Vlog Deathmatch FTW!

This video was created while Eddie and Irina were still with their “sugar daddy” Podtech, and couldn’t have been done without Nora McDevitt and Lee Cummings.

Episode links: Vlog Deathmatch Challenge, Veronica Belmont’s Trailer, Rey Brothers’ Promo, Miss Behavens: Lake Titicaca, Casey McKinnon’s Trailer, Doctor Popular

Welcome to the annual Gumball 3000 international road rally, where the players are rich and the spectators wish they were.

Episode links: Gumball 3000 (official), Gumball 3000 (wikipedia)

This video is what happens when you put RZA, chess and 3 dorky geeks who like to rap into one giant mixing bowl! The legendary rapper and award winning chess-master decided to start wuchess.com — a website and give part of the proceeds to scholarships for needy kids.

To promote the website, Wuchess and RZA had a contest on YouTube for the best 8 lines about chess. Irina wasn’t satisfied with her simplistic little video, so she got her friends and made this!

Episode links: WuChess, RZA, George Kelly, Doctor Popular, Karim Amara (special thanks!!)

Related on GETV: Hip Hop Chess Tournament

One man can make a difference! That tag line rang through every episode of the hit 80s tv show Knight Rider every Friday night as Michael aka David Hasselhoff raced his faithful K.I.T.T. into the hearts of millions of women — and men, really — in the world! In this episode, GETV catches up with the super star in San Francisco where the Hoff joined millionaires in the Gumball 300 rally. After Irina beat up the 500 other reporters trying to creep up on the Hoff, David tells Irina how he’s driving that same sleek black horsepower into the future, this time on the internets — the power of THE HOFF is so strong, he’s got his own social network where he makes dreams come true. Yes, you too can join HOFF SPACE and get your own HOFF BAG for those times when HOFF WIG is exactly what you need for the occasion.

Episode links: David Hasselhoff, DavidHasselhoff.com (HoffSpace), Gumball 3000

We spent some quality time at this year’s mega sci-fi spectacle Comic-Con, held annually in San Diego. Here we take a quick visual tour of the exhibition hall and the autograph lounge. How many faces and characters do you recognize?

Episode links: Comic-Con 2008, Photos

If you haven’t heard of Star Wars, stop reading now. If you have heard of Star Wars and especially Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, then you’re in for a treat. Alex spent several years working at Industrial Lights and Magic working on Star Wars #4, er, #1, and is also the founder of Pixel Corps, a “guild of digital craftsmen” where Alex trains future geekstars in everything digital. Irina interrupts Alex Lindsay’s video production bootcamp class and tortures him with deep meaningful questions such as — who was the first girl who flipped his boat? Turns out it was the lovely Lorraine…. Alex hosts This Week in Media and is a regular guest on the This Week in Tech. Alex also produces MacBreak Weekly.

Episode links: Alex Lindsay, Pixel Corps, This Week in Media

Irina has been shadowing dragstar Heklina around San Francisco for so long, she may as well get a Tranny Chaser t-shirt! You can get one for yourself at Heklina’s legendary party called Trannyshack — mucking up our fair city weekly for 12 years, the club night has been officially recognized by our own special mayor, Gavin Newsom. No Cher or Barbara Streisand here, these drag queens do songs by Arcade Fire, Peaches, Missy Elliot, Bjork and the inimitable Kate Bush. Heklina has hosted Mary Wilson of the Supremes, Charo, Gwen Stefani and NY party monster Lady Bunny. Ana Matronic of the Scissor Sisters performed frequently at Trannyshack before moving to New York. Heklina IS a super drag geek and here we get a piece of history and a totally different kind of geek.

Episode links: Heklina, Trannyshack, Trannsformation photos [thanks Tara Spalty]

While some of tech nobodies thought some kind of Apple event crowded out San Francisco with geeky types, Irina knew better. Tens of thousands of people pummeled our fair city with their presence to attend the WWWDC — the World Wide Wrestling Developers Conference, where nerdy alter ego’s of pale weaklings body-slammed each other deep into the night! Irina’s wresting twin, The Kazakhstane Krusher — no impostor like Borat (the entire film was shot in Romania!) — Irina was born in the nuclear waste fields of the former Soviet republic, and has the anatomic anomalies to prove it. Some of those anomalies are included in her signature moves, the K-Rocket Launchers! Lets see what kind of damage the bone-thin denizens of geekdom can bring in the wresting ring!

Episode links: Buzz’s WWDC Party, Kazakhstan, Buzz Anderson (The Bootlegger), Kevin Rose (“help me!”), Gutter Grill (Minna Bartender), Micah Saul (Guillotine Geek), Andy Smith (Bandito el Burrito)

June 11 is John Wayne’s birthday and what better way to commemorate the Duke’s enduring legacy than the John Wayne Memorial Balloon Fight at Alamo Square in San Francisco? Don’t answer that, let’s let Irina try.

Episode links: John Wayne, John Wayne Memorial Balloon Fight, Music: Doctor Popular

Ben Huh, chief cheezburger of I Can Has Cheezburger has turned his love of LOLCats into a popular site and even scored a book deal. While at MIT for ROFLCon, he stepped into the role of Stephen LOLking to explain the mysteries of his Universal Theory of LOLS to Irina.

Episode Links: Ben Huh, I Can Has Cheezburger, ROFLCon

JibJab is known for their short, funny music and political videos that you’ve no doubt forwarded to your mother or sister at least twice. While at ROLFcon in Boston, we ran into three mustachioed men who are writers and producers for JibJab. Irina demands they be funny.

Episode links: JibJab, ROFLcon, Scott Beale / Laughing Squid (Irina’s photos)

MC Frontalot, pioneer in the realm of the lyrically nerdcore, sits down with Irina to share some thoughts on life, movies and music.

Episode links: MC Frontalot, Nerdcore Rising, Doctor Popular, ytcracker

While at our favorite geek summer camp known as SXSW Interactive, Irina polls a few peeps on what the Internet and SXSW has done for them lately. The answers are as varied as they are earnest.

Episode links: SXSW Interactive, M dot Strange, Guy Kawasaki, AllTop, Tim Ferriss, Michael Verdi, Jason Toney, Liz Gannes, Clarence, Jessica Mah, George Oates, Daniel Burka, Gary Vaynerchuk, Paula Cavagnaro, John Halcyon Styn, Loren Feldman

O’Reilly’s Emerging Technology conference is often ground zero for useful and meaningful tech stuff and the geeks who invent them. In 2004, Flickr debuted here. In 2008, many DIY projects bloom, such as Socialbomb, aerial drones, binary LED watches, modular programmable open source gadgets and cheap open source robots. We talk to a few of their inventors, capture a brief moment with Nikita Chrusov of Soviet Unterzoegersdorf and close on a serious note as former AT&T technician Mark Klein accepts the EFF’s 2008 Pioneer Award.

Episode links: ETech 2008, Socialbomb, Nate True, Bre Pettis, Soviet Unterzoegersdorf, monochrom, IPRE, Bug Labs, EFF Pioneer Awards, Mark Klein

It’s a hard life being most excellent at most video games, but Johnathan Wendel aka Fatal1ty doesn’t shy away from the challenge. So what does happen in a typical day of a professional video game player? That’s what we really wanted to know too, so Irina invades Fatal1ty’s hotel room to find out.

Episode links: Fatal1ty, Fatal1ty (wikipedia), PMS Clan

What better way to spend Valentine’s Day than beating the crap out of someone else’s lover with a pillow? That’s exactly what happened when over a thousand lost souls gathered in San Francisco on this fateful day for the annual rite of passage known as Pillow Fight.

Episode links: Pillow Fight San Francisco, Chocolate Rain 8bit Remix

Anonymous is a nebulous and faceless group that normally lives comfortably on the Internet but has chosen to step into meatspace on this particular day to face off with the Church of Scientology, an organization which it considers to be illegal and immorally coercive. Scientology labels Anonymous a ‘cyber terrorist’ group. Protests against Scientology were organized simultaneously in cities all around the world. Irina pays a visit to the Church’s San Francisco headquarters to get a sense of what all the fuss is about.

Episode links: Scientology, Anonymous, Project Chanology, Xenu.net, Lawrence Wollersheim, Mike Rinder, BBC Panaroma on Scientology

Back before there was the Internet, early caveman dialed into computer bulletin board systems or BBSes to get their online fix. Many of these boards distinguished themselves with ANSI art, an early form of electronic cave paintings. ANSI was an extension to the even earlier form of caveman communication known as ASCII used in MS-DOS based computers. It is with great pleasure that we happened upon the San Francisco hacker art gallery “20 goto 10” where an ANSI art exhibition was in progress. Irina Slutsky talks to curator Kevin Olson who takes us on a tour of some of the amazing early work of two ANSI artists, lordjazz and somms.

Episode links: ANSI Art (wikipedia), ANSI Art Gallery Show, 20 goto 10 Gallery, Sixteen Colors ANSI Archive, ACiD, Phlogiston (soundtrack)

We all know that one crazy cat lady who puts her complete love, money and affection into her feline friends. Do you know what happens when crazy cat ladies come together and subject their little love muffins to the scrutiny of the harsh lights and exacting judges? Neither did we which is why Irina Slutsky and Violet Blue decided to visit the Fog City Cat Show in Alameda, California.

Episode links: Fog City Cat Club, lolcats, Doctor Popular, Drown Radio, Violet Blue

The Commodore 64 home computer celebrated its 25th birthday at the Computer History Museum with several luminaries of the 8-bit computing era present. We take a peek at this popular pesky piece of silicon and plastic and try to get an idea of why the Commodore 64 was the best selling personal computer in history at 30 million units moved. GETV’s Roving Retro Reporter Violet Blue puts the question to Jack Tramiel, founder and head of Commodore, as well as his son Leonard Tramiel. Violet gets a bit of insight from a couple of the C64’s competitors, Steve Wozniak, creator of the first Apple computer, and Bill Lowe, known as the father of the IBM PC.

Episode links: Commodore 64, Jack Tramiel, Leonard Tramiel, Steve Wozniak, William Lowe, The Commodore Billboard, C64 sounds [YouTube:Lavoraste], C64 games [YouTube:tr0d], C64 Turns 25 [news.com], Computer History Museum, Violet Blue

GETV pops down to Los Angeles to see how geeks can help support the striking television and movie writers of Hollywood. Solidarity through double-clicking or not double-clicking, that is the question. Irina catches up with writer and actor Seth Rogen, Chris Provenzano,Phil Rosenthal and Richard Potter on the picket line to find out from them how we geeks can help.

Episode links: United Hollywood, WGA, Seth Rogen, Chris Provenzano, Phil Rosenthal, Richard Potter, Strike Dancing

Episode links: Vintage Computer Festival, Commodore PET, TRS-80, David Welsh: Priming the Pump, Computer History Museum, Phlogiston

Here’s a bit more coverage from the NewTeeVee Live conference. Irina asks some new media talent about the old media game.

Episode links: NewTeeVee Live, CNET Webware, French Maid TV, ICM, The Dot Comix, Tiki Bar TV

We dropped into the inaugural NewTeeVee Live! conference this week so Irina could ask some burning questions on fashion, content, and of course everyone’s favorite subject, the long tail.

Episode links: NewTeeVee Live, Revision3, Laughing Squid, OpenRoad.TV, Xlntads, Heather Gold, Seesmic

Maybe this will help, maybe it won’t. Thanks to the ever prolific Doc Popular for the hook up with some custom intro and outro theme music, debuting for the first time in this little inspirational piece.

The fun dispensable candy known as PEZ is undoubtedly one of the geeky wonders of the world. We got super excited when we learned that the world’s only PEZ museum was a mere half hour drive down the road. Justine Ezarik aka iJustine was in town, and it turns out that she’s a huge PEZ fan and collector. Only Steve Jobs or a new Apple product launch could keep her away. iJustine and Irina pay a visit, take a tour and get the history of PEZ from Gary Doss, curator of the Burlingame PEZ Museum of Memorabilia.

Episode links: PEZ Museum, PEZ Candy (official site), iJustine

We got wind of a big chess tournament happening with some of the big names in hip hop, so of course we had to see what this was all about. Turns out the Hip Hop Chess Federation was putting on the inaugural Chess Kings Invitational, an event with the brightest young minds of chess competing for scholarships and the big belt. Chess, hip hop music and martial arts are the elements that build life strategies according to founder Adisa Banjoko. Irina gets the scoop behind the 64 squares and meets legends PopMaster Fabel of the Rock Steady Crew and The RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan among others.

Episode links: Hip Hop Chess Federation, HHCF blog, Adisa Banjoko, Pop Master Fabel, Emma Bentley, The RZA, DLabrie, Davey D’s wrapup, Chesspark, [full interviews: Adisa Banjoko, PopMaster Fabel, Emma Bentley, DLabrie, The RZA of Wu-Tang Clan, Rugged Monk

Podcasters and videobloggers from all around the world converged recently on the eastern Los Angeles wasteland of Ontario, California for the Podcast and New Media Expo. As one can imagine, much incestuous self-referential media making went on among the attendees. And we at Geek Entertainment TV are no different. See which micro-celebrities Irina accosts with her microphone. Odds are, you are probably one of them.

Episode links: Steve Garfield, Women of Warcraft Podcast, The Clip Show, Cinema Psychic, Daily Breakfast, Lab Rats, Total Podcastrophe, The Medical Minute, Nick Starr, Rocketboom, Paul Dateh, Midwest Teen Sex Show

On the eve of the heavily anticipated launch of Halo 3, Microsoft opened it’s Silicon Valley doors to developers and gamers for a sneak preview of the game that every kid in America wants. Irina catches the zeitgeist of a Halo 3 multiplayer tournament and has a chat with some of Microsoft’s Xbox hardware engineers who made it all possible.

Episode links: Halo 3, Bungie, Xbox 360, Microsoft

A million virtual boozers can’t be wrong, nor can they be drunk unless you bring them into reality. Reality is what happened at Booze Mail’s Million Booze March event where virtual boozers came out of the closet to embrace actual reality based booze drinks. If reality scares you like it does us, stick to the uber popular Booze Mail Facebook app and you won’t have to drink real drinks with real people again. Irina shows us why it’s a bit scary.

Episode links: Booze Mail (FB app), Million Booze March (photos), Renkoo, Schlomo

It would really suck if your cell phone, iPod or Zune got you killed while driving which is why Microsoft’s got your back. Their new Sync platform hooks up your bluetooth device to your car, assuming you have a new Ford and a Windows 98 install CD. OK, install CD is optional. It’s all voice activated goodness from there. Velle Kolde of Microsoft Auto shows Irina how to call Bill Gates and find Bootylicious on her imaginary Zune.

Episode links: Ford Sync, Microsoft Auto

The force is strong with this one, young geek viewer. We caught up with Mr. Cranky Geek himself, John C. Dvorak, while he was brushing up his crank skills with Master Yoda outside of George Lucas’ infamous Industrial Light and Magic in San Francisco’s Presidio. Irina goes into deep history with Dvorak to discover it all started with a fly in the sandwich.

Episode links: John C. Dvorak, Cranky Geeks, ILM

Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV and Irina suck on rocks, eat dirt and taste wine like superheros. If you’ve seen the Conan bit, this is similar until Irina turns the tables on Gary. Filmed at Technorati whom we love for putting up with our disruptions.

Episode links: Wine Library TV, Gary on Conan, Technorati

We dropped by Linuxworld 2007 in San Francisco to see what’s new in the world of Linux operating systems, stacks, racks and porn. Irina goes deep among the penguins.

Episode links: Linuxworld, ubuntu, Debian, SUSE, FreeBSD, FreeBSDGirl, LinuxQuestions

Violet Blue visits the Musee Mecanique at Pier 45 in San Francisco for a refreshing, nostalgic trip through mechanical games of fun and fortune from the past. Some of these relics are downright morbid, others are delightfully funny. Violet takes us on a tour and relays a bit of the museum’s history.

Episode links: Violet Blue, Musee Mecanique

If you have any doubt that robots are taking over, can carry a tune and are mean fuckers, then check this video out. Captured! By Robots dragged their creator JBOT to the last show of their tenth anniversary tour here in their home destination of San Francisco. Irina corners JBOT around back of the Bottom of the Hill before the show and tries to find out why he lets his creations torture him so.

Episode links: Captured! By Robots, JBOT, Bottom of the Hill

Yes, this music video will make you buy an iPhone if you don’t already have one. No, we don’t get kickbacks from Apple nor do we make any apologies.

Directed, produced and edited by Nora McDevitt, featuring Randi Jayne, MC Prager & MC Slutsky. A collaborative effort.

Episode links: iPhone, Nora McDevitt (imdb), Randi Jayne, MC Prager, MC Slutsky, Doctor Popular, Myloekoe, Laura Swisher, FBC

The culmination of all the hype finally hit on iPhone d-day. We went down to the Apple Store in San Francisco and spoke with a few potential iPhone owners waiting in line and a couple excited newbie owners with booty in hand. Irina takes the pulse.

Episode links: iPhone, SF Apple Store, Santa Inc : Dorothy’s Magic Bus (soundtrack)

We took a trip down to Los Angeles for the first inaugural Pixelodeon online video festival. Irina chats up a handful of the creative minds that made this a weekend to remember.

Episode links: Pixelodeon, Can We Do That?, Rick Rey, Eric Rey, Josh Cohen, TheHill88, Fred Seibert,

To scale or not to scale Ruby on Rails, that is the question at the first geekSessions event in San Francisco. Using her super reporting powers, Irina finds out from attendees and presenters how Ruby scales in comparison to… other things.

Episode links: geekSessions, Ruby on Rails

There was so much goodness at the Maker Faire this year, we couldn’t just do one episode. Violet Blue goes deep and talks to makers Kimric Smythe and Shannon O’Hare of the Neverwas Haul project, Katie London and Kate Hartman of Botanicalls and Ron Sears, who with his son Nick Sears, created the ultraORB.

Episode links: Maker Faire, Violet Blue, Neverwas Haul, Botanicalls, ultraORB

The Maker Faire came to town and it was chock full of brilliant, freaky gadget makers and inventors from around the world. GETV’s Roving RoboReporter Violet Blue wanders the fairgrounds to see how things are going in the Make Play Day room, explores vintage pinball machines and checks in with the Power Tool Drag Races.

Episode links: Violet Blue, Maker Faire, Michael Shiloh, Make Play Day (pix), Lucky Ju Ju Pinball, Power Tool Drag Races, Jeremy Boyle (Trio1)

Yahoo! opened her new San Francisco research lab to an unsuspecting public lucky enough to sample her fresh warez. Irina hits the Pipes, samples the del.icio.us DNA, gets mixd and finds a very happy Messenger.

Episode links: Yahoo Brickhouse, Pipes, del.icio.us, mixd, Messenger

It was 25 years ago when Michael Knight began prowling the mean streets with his trusty molecular bonded chatty partner KITT. Michael was last seen in Germany while KITT waits on a lonely used car lot in Dublin, California for a new owner flush with the correct configuration of Benjamins. Irina gets inside KITT and has a little heart-to-heart with the hardened turbo powered crime fighter.

Episode links: KITT, Knight Rider, Kassabian Motors (for sale)

We were recently invited to check out Double Vision’s “To Futurism and Back Again” dance performance. Irina checks in with Double Vision’s artistic directors Pauline Jennings and Sean Clute to find out what ‘intermedia’ means and how dance relates to technology.

Episode links: Double Vision, To Futurism and Back Again

NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California opened up her vast hangar to celebrate the anniversary of the first man in space, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961. Oh what a long way we’ve come since the Cold War. This night was a mix of space geeks, Burning Man freaks and tons of fun.

Episode links: Yuri’s Night, NASA Ames, The Straggler [C.M.PUTER] (buy)

Onomy Labs like to make fun interactive devices that are engaging, intuitive and cutting edge. Onomist and GETV R&D reporter Julia Yacenda prods principle Onomists and former Xerox PARC researchers Dale MacDonald and Scott Minneman into showing off a couple of their signature interactive pieces. Fresh out of the lab is the GeoConnectTable, an amazingly intuitive interactive interface to satellite maps and geo-data. Another popular piece is RED, the Reading Eye Dog. Watch and listen as RED sings a popular dog song in his robotic canine synthesized voice.

Episode links: Onomy Labs, GeoConnectTable, RED

Justin.tv is the mobile Internet lifecasting phenomenon that’s blowing up the new and old mediasphere. Justin Kan invited us over to his messy ass dorm style apartment which doubles as his startup company. Irina gets the scoop on Justin’s vow of 24×7 public existence long before Jay Leno. Has anyone called Leno yet?

Episode links: Justin.tv, JenniCam, mike photo (LMDocherty), schlomo photo (cirne), Kent Bye (for footage capture)

While at SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas, Roving RoboReporter Violet Blue caught up with a unique hacker by the name of Kyle Machulis. Kyle isn’t your ordinary teledildonic hardware hacker. No, Kyle created the ultimate real-time sex device mashup by linking public Twitter updates to a Rez Trance Vibrator allowing users to FEEL Twitter messages. Kyle demonstrates and explains how it all works. You will never regard Twitter the same way again. (This video is safe for work, no matter what your industry).

Episode links: Violet Blue, qDot (slashdong), MMOrgy, IGDA Sex, Twitter, Rez Trance Vibrator

GETV was in Austin, Texas for South by Southwest Interactive (SXSW), the annual geek summer camp. It was all about the panels, hallways and parties. So what’s the score on who hangs out where? That’s what Irina finds out.

Episode links: SXSW 2007, Hugh MacLeod, Srini Kumar, Bre Pettis, Dale Dougherty, Violet Blue, Jonathan Moore, Robert Boyle, Kris Krug, Casey McKinnon, Rudy Jahchan, Eric Rice, Molly Wright Steenson, Scott Beale, Gabe Rivera, Joshua Pollack, Aaron Valdez, Douglas Sarine, Twitter, Jennifer Robbins, Jackson West, Chuck Olsen, Kent Nichols