Welcome to Nerd Nite Los Angeles! We’re so excited that you’ve discovered our community’s nerdy little corner of LA. We are Nerd Nite (like TED Talks or the Discovery Channel + beer), Drinking & Dragons (live, imsurovised DnD), NNXL (live music), and Nerd Nite Out (community-building). Check out what we’re up to at one of our upcoming events!
WHAT IS NERD NITE?
We all know that learning is more fun when you’re drinking with friends and colleagues. Thus, Nerd Nite is a monthly event held in more than 100 cities across the globe during which several folks give 20-minute fun-yet-informative presentations across all disciplines – while the audience drinks along. It’s like TED Talks…but with beer.
WHEN AND WHERE IS NERD NITE?
Brewyard Beer Company LLC.
906 Western Ave, Glendale, CA 91201
Every 3rd Tuesday of the Month (November and December dates subject to change)
WILL THERE BE FOOD?
Yes! Tacos are provided by La Prieta Mexicana.
NEXT NERD NITE LA IS TUE OCTOBER 21st!
Join us at our next Nerd Nite LA on Tuesday, October 21st! We’ll have Halloween Canon & Timelines, Resident Evil & War Crimes, and Serving Crook: Queercoded Bad Guys! Keep reading for more details…
PRESENTATION #1: The Night They All Came Home: A Unified Theory of the Halloween Series Timeline
By Bill Bria
Summary: After decades of long-running film franchises constantly being rebooted, remade, or otherwise playing fast and loose with continuity and canon, most audiences have become used to the idea of a fractured series timeline. Yet every installment of a franchise, despite the aims of individual filmmakers, is inextricably influenced by what came before, meaning that a chronological order of release is the best, if not only, way to watch such a series. Sometimes these latent influences and connections get so close to being explicit that it’s possible to believe that they really are all connected, and certainly the mysterious and metaphysical properties of the horror genre allow this to carry even more weight. Here, then, is writer Bill Bria’s unified theory of the Halloween series timeline, a proposal on how every single installment can be incorporated into one endless night in which HE came home.
Bio: Bill Bria is a writer, journalist, critic and film historian living in Los Angeles. His work has appeared on websites like SlashFilm (where he’s a staff writer), Discussing Film (where he’s a regular contributor), The Wrap, Dread Central, Bloody Disgusting, Polygon, Crooked Marquee and several other websites. He’s also contributed essays and commentary tracks to several physical media releases, both solo and with Ashley Coffin, the co-host of his horror film deep dive podcast “Bill and Ashley’s Terror Theater” on the Stranded Panda Network. He’s spoken on panels at LA Comic Con and has hosted several screenings in the Los Angeles area. He’s also appeared as an actor in episodes of Boardwalk Empire and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and has recorded several comedy music albums with Sam Haft as part of the “Sam and BIll” project. He recently contributed some video essay review scripts to the YouTube channel FilmSpeak, and is also a producer at Ghost Pixel Records.
PRESENTATION #2: Shadow of the Umbrella: How Japanese War Crimes and American Eugenics Influenced Resident Evil
By Christopher Smith
Summary: The Resident Evil games are enjoyed around the world for their terrifying scenarios, grotesque creatures, thrilling action, and amusing campiness. However, the Hollywood style of the Resident Evil series hides its fascinating subtext—the real-life criminological horrors of Imperial Japan and Eugenics-era America. This talk will examine how the Umbrella Corporation mirrors the pseudoscience of American eugenics and the bioweapon experiments of the clandestine Japanese Unit 731. Criminologist Chris Smith will uncover the substance of these crimes, revealing how they influenced the story and scenario of the Resident Evil series, the design and features of the locations in the game, the tactics and philosophy of the villains, and more.
Bio: Chris Smith is a huge nerd and an inveterate fan of horror, cinema, mysteries and video games—but besides that, he is a criminologist who works with at-risk and high-risk youth in order to break the cycles that produce criminals, victims, addicts, and the apathetic. He holds a Bachelor’s in Criminology with a focus on sex crimes and crimes against children, and a Master’s in Child and Adolescent Development with a focus on traumatology.
PRESENTATION #3: Revenge of the Closet Monsters: Reclaiming Queer Villainy
By BJ and Harmony Colangelo
Summary: Queerness and villainy have long been entangled in mainstream entertainment — from Dwight Frye’s eager bottom Renfield in Dracula to countless Disney villains — critics have spent years decrying these characters as harmful, dangerous, and *gasp* problematic. But what has society lost in abandoning the rich legacy of queer-coded villains? Horror film analysts, authors, and podcasters BJ and Harmony Colangelo, or otherwise known as The Wives Colangelo, are here to help you give yourself over to the absolute pleasure of embracing queer villainy.
Bio: BJ and Harmony Colangelo are writers and film analysts from Los Angeles by way of Cleveland, Ohio. Their work, individually and collectively, has been published in Fangoria Magazine, The AV Club, Playboy.com, Autostraddle, Vulture, Shudder, Bloody Disgusting, /Film, and The Daily Dot. They both contributed short stories to the Haunted Reels anthology series, frequently provide commentary tracks and video essays on physical media releases, and wrote the book on SLEEPAWAY CAMP. They’ve both spoken at San Diego Comic-Con, frequently host and moderate panels/talkbacks, and can be seen in the documentary Queer for Fear, Double Take on Shout! TV, and recently hosted a talkback at the Academy Museum. They also host the popular queer coming-of-age podcast, This Ends at Prom.
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