For this coming Christmas, Life of Pi will finally be coming to theaters – and now there is another very good reason to hope the world doesn’t end in a Mayan apocalypse on December 21, 2012. At the CinemaCon (the official convention of The National Association of Theatre Owners) this week, 20th Century Fox unveiled a 10-minute look at the upcoming 3D film about an eccentric Indian boy lost at sea on a lifeboat together with a very large and hungry Bengal tiger, and the buzz from the convention is …

AZ ASSIST, a Tempe-based nonprofit organization that helps teens and young adults with autism, will host a Gaming Day event this Saturday in connection with Autism Awareness & Acceptance Month. Among the attractions, Amazing Arizona Comics creator and Nerdvana contributor Russ Kazmierczak Jr. will be doing sketches from noon to 2 p.m. The first person to mention Nerdvana will get an exclusive, oversized Amazing Arizona Comics framed page!

In the United Kingdom the new stop-motion animated movie The Pirates! Band of Misfits is called “The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists.” Apparently “science” doesn’t play well in North America, but that shouldn’t stop us “Yankees” from enjoying this very entertaining British film by the creators of Chicken Run and the Wallace & Gromit movies.
The Pirates! Band of Misfits is based on a series of British books, by author/screenwriter Gideon Defoe called, “The Pirates! In an Adventure with (various titles),” about a not-so-swashbuckley Captain conventionally called, “Pirate Captain.” The …

Russ Kazmierczak Jr. is a modern renaissance man, he is the creative force behind the ultra-popular Amazing Arizona Comics and he’s an incredible author, poet and spoken-word artist. He’s a founding member and plank-owner of the Red Avengers, sings some mean karaoke and is also a routine contributor on Nerdvana with exclusive Amazing Arizona Comics content.
Russ is the “go-to-guy” that the local press contacts when they need authoritative commentary on comics and their impact on pop culture. He is dedicated and passionate about comics, the comics business and the history …

Everyone knows the old axiom, “monkey see, monkey do,” so maybe it was because of my primate proclivities that, while watching chimps sleep, nap and wearily walk about the jungle in the new Disneynature film, Chimpanzee, I was nearly put right to sleep.
I was very excited to see this new film, which was made in the style of the old Disney True-Life Adventure movies that create story narratives out of wildlife documentary footage. These films can be corny and often the “story” is made-up and edited to add drama to …

Every four years when the presidential election rolls around you can count on a variety of interesting pop culture novelties to crop up and capitalize on the election fervor. Who can forget Obama Girl or Hillary Nutcrackers? One of the first things to come along this year is a new Ron Paul video game being funded by Kickstarter and created by Daniel Williams of RonPaulSwag.com.
In the game “The Road to REVOLution” you play the role of Ron Paul and make your way across all 50 states collecting gold and delegates …

Via Lightning Octopus

While The Hunger Games, a movie about a future society where children who live in severe poverty are forced to battle to the death in order to win food for their family and community, is celebrated for continuing to rake in millions at the theater box office, to the tune of $322 million to date, real kids in America are going hungry every day in real life.
Did you know these facts about childhood hunger in America?

More than 16 million kids in America live in households that struggle to put food …

If you’ve ever seen John Carpenter’s 1981 film Escape from New York, then you’ve already seen the original and much better film that the new movie Lockout tries to be. Not only is the plot concept of Lockout lifted from the Carpenter classic, but the whole film feels like it came directly from the B-movie grindhouse-style pictures of that era.
Guy Pearce (Memento) plays the “Snake Plissken” role (minus the eye-patch) as CIA agent Snow. He’s been framed for killing a co-agent and stealing government secrets and the only way to …

The second Thursday of each month is Lo-Fi Forums night at the Lo-Fi Coffeehouse in downtown Mesa, when community movers and shakers get the floor to discuss topics near and dear to their hearts. The downtown Mesa monthly event was inspired by similar larger scale shows like TED and Ignite Phoenix in hopes of bringing community members closer together to talk about inspiring, progressive and provocative ideas and projects that are happening locally.
The monthly forum is the brainchild of Bob Nelson, founder of performance poetry and literary arts organization Anthology, …