Art I Love: Across the Great Lake

So...remember how on Monday, I wrote about Graig and his amazing art?

He just gave me this:

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He's my favorite. That is all.

Five Random Observations from My First Comic Con

I am, admittedly, a pretty big geek. But up until now, I’d never attended an actual Comic Con. So this year when my friend Billy (a Comic Con veteran) brought it up, I jumped at the chance. I read his 10 Commandments of New York Comic Con, used copious amounts of soap, put on my Harry and the Potters T-shirt and set out for the faraway land of the Javits Center.

It was a wondrous world of spandex, body paint and unabashed geekiness. I loved it!

Check out my guest post on Tuesday Night Movies (a hilarious movie review site, by the way), for the 5 high- and lowlights of my adventure into Nerd Mecca.

The Doctor Is In!

My friend Jenny has been telling me for years to start watching Dr. Who. I'd been shying away only because there were over 70 episodes to get through and I usually don't have much time to spare for TV.

However, I was taking a little writing break over the past couple of months and decided to give it a try. I liked the first few episodes, but somewhere around episode 8 of Series 1, I got hooked.

Yup, Dr. Who. I love it now. And 70 episodes? Pshaaaw! That's nothing! (In other words, I probably needed to get off my break and back to writing much sooner than it actually happened. Yeaaah.)

Wanna know my three favorite doctors, companions, and episodes?*

Okay! Here they are in order (with my absolute favorites on top).

*These lists are only about the new series which started in 2005; I haven't yet watched the older episodes which started in the 60s.

Doctors
1. The Tenth Doctor: the perfect mix of goofy and heart-wrenchingly serious when it mattered. It also doesn't hurt that David Tennant is totally dreamy in a wonderfully nerdy way.

2. The Ninth Doctor: I really got to love this much darker, brooding version of the Doctor and wish Christopher Eccleston had stuck around for at least one more season. (It's also a shame that there seems to be some bad blood between him and the series' execs.)

3. The Eleventh Doctor: It took me the longest to warm up to him, but I finally did during the 11th episode ("The Lodger") of Series 5. I think this has less to do with Matt Smith and more to do with how much I miss David Tennant. But I do like him now, too (and maybe have finally accepted that he's the new doctor and I just have to deal with it!)


Companions
1. Rose: this sweet, quirky friendship that turned into a love story is my absolute favorite. I love the chemistry between Billie Piper and both Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant. And I also love the surrounding characters (Jackie and Mickey) of her story.

2. Donna: is hilarious. After a few seasons of companions crushing on the doctor, it was really refreshing to have one who most definitely did not feel that way about him ("too skinny!"). I think some of her episodes made me laugh the hardest.

3. Rory: I think I can count him as a companion at this point, right? Rory is the sweetest and his devotion to Amy makes me like her more, too.

4. Special Bonus Companion: Captain Jack Harkness. I don't know if he ever technically counted as a companion, but his suave, chiseled character (especially against the 9th Doctor who found him totally cheesy) was awesome fun.


Episodes (for the purposes of this list, I chose one favorite from each Doctor):
1. "The Doctor's Wife" (the 11th Doctor): Neil Gaiman writing a Dr. Who episode? Yes, please! Quirky plot, razor sharp dialogue and peppered with poignant moments. What more could you ask for?

2. "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End" (the 10th Doctor): My favorite season finale so far. I loved the return of all of the Doctor's companions to help him save the world (natch)...especially the return of one very important, seemingly lost forever blond (see above).

3. "Father's Day" (the 9th Doctor): I think this was the episode that made me really love the show wholeheartedly. It was filled with a ton of human emotion (alongside the bad guy aliens) and it made me care deeply about both Rose and the Doctor.

So there you are! Who fans, who are your favorite Doctors, companions and episodes?

Geek-Off, Part Deux!

It's time for the second official Geek-Off! Why? Because I said so...

Actually, it's because I have a geektastic new toy to show off and I figured why should I have all the fun?

In case you need a recap, the first ever Geek-Off involved a challenge: one that asked you to put your geekiest item or story up against the crest of Gryffindor which is painted on my fireplace. I collected your entries and then put them to a vote. The results were astonishing, delightful and highly geeky. You can see the entries here and the results here. (Yup, having the bat symbol engraved on your wedding ring pretty much makes you a winner of the Geek-Off and of life, in my opinion).

So...it's time for round two! Give me your geekiest object, story or experience. The only rule is that it can't be the same as anything you submitted for the first Geek-Off!

Behold my entry. It comes with a story (naturally).

On Friday, when I was standing in an almost-3-hour line for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, and feeling rather blue about it being the final movie, my boyfriend decided to cheer me up. He decided to do so by buying me a present from the store across the street. The store across the street was Forbidden Planet. And he emerged with THIS:

I'm using it to lock the door.

That is a sonic screwdriver. It's specifically the 10th doctor's (my favorite) sonic screwdriver. And it makes the sonic screwdriver noise, expands, and doubles as both a regular pen and a spy pen. That means I can write secret messages that can only be read by the light of the sonic screwdriver.

Like so:

Looks like an ordinary piece of paper? HA! It is actually a TOP SECRET message written by my friend, Jenny, which I have expertly decoded. With my sonic screwdriver pen. (She has one too, obviously. We geeks tend to flock together).

SO...hit me with your best shot, geeks! Leave me your entries in the comments section or tweet them to me. On Friday, we'll take another vote and the winner will receive:

This highly coveted Geek mug designed by yours truly.

Geek On!

Butterfly in the Sky...

...if you're humming a certain theme song based on my blog title, then we're probably on the same page (ha! See what I did there?).

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a children's book author (true!). I also wanted my book featured on TV as part of Reading Rainbow.

Reading Rainbow was a PBS show hosted by the amazing LeVar Burton. Every episode, he would be walking around, talking in his soothing voice about some sort of theme (for some reason, I particularly remember one where he was in San Francisco). Then there would be two picture books read aloud, usually by a celebrity. The screen would pan across the illustrations (sometimes, I think, they were even slightly animated). Basically, like a visual audio book.

At the very end of the show, there would be three book reviews...given by kids. It was awesome. But then again, you don't have to take my word for it...actually, unless you've seen it, you do. The show's been off the air for a while.

I would get really excited when I owned a book that was featured on the show because this would mean I could play one of my favorite games: read the book aloud as it was done on Reading Rainbow.

I was a huge dork.

When I was in college, the creator of Reading Rainbow, Twila Liggett, came to speak at one of my classes. I kid you not, I was starstruck.

I was a huge dork.

Now that I'm a little older, I wonder what the logistics of getting a book on that show were. Was it done through the publishing house's marketing department? Was it sought out by the producers of Reading Rainbow? If anyone has any idea, I would love to know.

Oh, and this whole blog post was brought about because my friend, Jenny, forwarded me this link: http://thereadingrainbowflashmob.com/. Apparently, this Reading Rainbow flash mob movement would involve singing the Reading Rainbow theme song with LeVar Burton and I think I even read something somewhere about choreography. Um, yes. Sign me up.

I am a huge dork.

Stop Me If I Make An Unnecessary Prequel In Thirty Years

If The Hangover Part II's box office receipts last weekend taught me anything, it's that sequels make a lot of money everybody loves a sequel! And who am I to not try to make bank deny the public what they want.

Contrary to my declarations oh, about two weeks ago, I decided to give this vlog thing another shot. The good news is that famous painter (it's true because it's certified by the YES Network) Graig Kreindler is in this one, too. And this time he's interviewing me about some of my favorite things.

Rated G for Geeky. Viewer Discretion is Advised.


The Sarvenaz & Graig Show, Episode 2 from Sarvenaz Tash on Vimeo.

Oh, and I apologize for the backward writing. Apparently the MacBook's built-in cam records everything in mirror form because Apple thinks it would be jarring for consumers otherwise (seriously, that was the official explanation in their forums). I've figured out a workaround to this but it'll have to happen in the next episode...that is, if there is a next episode. [twirls imaginary producer mustache]

Geek = WINNER!

The poll is closed and the winner of the first-ever Geek-Off is @nicholasdoyle. Nick's wedding ring has the bat symbol engraved inside of it. Like so:

Nick's story gets even better. Wait for it...his father-in-law made the ring. And his sister-in-law (his wife's sister) did the engraving. And Nick didn't even know about it. Clearly, Nick, you win at life (and at in-laws) and don't need my official Geek-Off crown. However, you won it fair and square (and what are we geeks if not fair and square), so here is your prize, which you will be getting in the mail shortly:


Runner-up was the valiant @debbbers. Debby is a head biologist. She is very, very smart and does very, very smart thing with viruses all day. One day, Debby made up this song:

Whatugonnado with all that virus? All the virus inside your iris? Imma gonna get conjunctivitis!

If I'm not mistaken, I believe said song is set to the tune of the seminal Black Eyed Peas classic, 'My Humps.'

Debby, you deserve something for your unabashed geekiness (and your vast lyrical improvements) so you shall be getting this:

As for me and my Gryffindor crest, I am humbled and delighted to be in third place and in the midst of such fine, fine geekery. Dolls, thrones, office supplies, Kenneth Branagh...I truly feel as if I am amongst my people! Keep up the good work, my fellow geeks. Who knows? There may be another Geek-Off just around the corner!

And for the record--because this story is too good not to share--last night I went to use my boyfriend's computer to Photoshop the proprietary 'Geek' logo you see above. He wasn't home and the monitor was asleep. When I awoke said monitor, I saw that it was on YouTube...on this video to be exact: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlE_bLZj9T0

Yes, that is a narrated video of someone playing an 80s text-based adventure computer game called Conquests of Camelot. I almost gave him the crown right on the spot.

Vote for the Geekiest Geek of Them All!

I asked for your geekiest stories and, boy, did you deliver.

So what geekier way to declare the winner of the first-ever Geek-Off than by voting for it in a poll. Because, let's face it, you probably like voting. And pressing buttons.

So here they are, ladies and gentlemen, the Geek-Off candidates:

Who wins the Geek-Off?