Nerd Nite Tokyo
My backlog of things to write about is getting severe. I can't remember the last time my life was this busy and filled with so many good things!
I've never really been the kind of person to attend events, but now that I've thrown myself out into the meetup world and made some friends doing so, I figured I'd go try this one event I'd been hearing about through @beingtokyo.
The event is called Nerd Nite Tokyo, it's apparently a local branch of a bigger thing, though I had never heard about it before. It's a monthly event where (usually) three presenters get to talk nerdy for about 20 minutes or so on a topic of their choosing.
The event I attended had the following schedule:
Ken Kaba - Just the Worst: Why Do We Love Bad Movies?
Danielle DeLatte - Emerging Space Businesses
Tomasz Rutkowski - Decoding the Mind in Realtime
I saw the two first presentations, but had to leave before the last one because I was worried I'd miss my last train .... the event was about 45 minutes by train away from my place, I didn't know how long each presentation would be or that there would be breaks in-between. It started at 8PM, so this already seemed a little late for me considering the travel time to get back home.
The venue was a British pub in Shimokitazawa (they even served fish&chips!), even before entering the door, it was clear that this was an international event, meaning... few or no Japanese people present. Absolutely everything was in English.
On the one hand it's great to "escape" once in a while to spend time with fellow expats, but on the other hand, it's so easy to slip into a habit of only going to these type of events and only ever befriending other expats. There's nothing wrong with that, I guess, but you hear stories of people who move to Tokyo and never even bother learning basic Japanese for every day life, because they get by just fine in their own English speaking bubble... and that irks me quite a bit. I'm not saying that this applies to any of the people at this event, I just feel wary of these type of events for this reason.
In any case, I met up with my translator friend and her husband, we found us a nice back row seat, and ended up in this official picture from the event (can you spot us? We're blurry)!
This must have been taken during the first talk, which was very entertaining! Though the title was a little misleading. Or he just never got around to talking about the why. He basically presented a bunch of hilarious clips from obscure films, and talked about his own criteria for a "bad" film that's also good (for all the wrong reasons).
One of the clips he screened was a long sequence from Deadfall, a Nicolas Cage film I'd never heard about before, but that I definitely want to track down now. Holy hell, what a mess.
Unfortunately, this was the only presenter without a twitter. He seemed like the kind of guy who could have recommended cinemas or other film related events in the city....
When the second presenter started talking, it got very technical very fast, and though learning about space mining is very interesting, it's not really a burning passion of mine. Nor was it that entertaining, so the setting seemed really off for this type of presentation.
I was worried I'd feel this way about the event beforehand, but the first talk was really entertaining, so that made me hopeful about the rest living up to the standards he set.
It was a fun enough night out, but I had pictured it as something a little different. Maybe I've just become too accustomed to No Such Thing As The News and their highly entertaining way of presenting weird facts and nerdy trivia.
I'll keep my eye on Nerd Nite's schedule, if something interesting pops up, I'll drop by again! This time was a bit of a miss, I guess, but it has inspired me to go hunt down more trashy/obscure films, so that's something!
I've never really been the kind of person to attend events, but now that I've thrown myself out into the meetup world and made some friends doing so, I figured I'd go try this one event I'd been hearing about through @beingtokyo.
The event is called Nerd Nite Tokyo, it's apparently a local branch of a bigger thing, though I had never heard about it before. It's a monthly event where (usually) three presenters get to talk nerdy for about 20 minutes or so on a topic of their choosing.
The event I attended had the following schedule:
Ken Kaba - Just the Worst: Why Do We Love Bad Movies?
Danielle DeLatte - Emerging Space Businesses
Tomasz Rutkowski - Decoding the Mind in Realtime
I saw the two first presentations, but had to leave before the last one because I was worried I'd miss my last train .... the event was about 45 minutes by train away from my place, I didn't know how long each presentation would be or that there would be breaks in-between. It started at 8PM, so this already seemed a little late for me considering the travel time to get back home.
The venue was a British pub in Shimokitazawa (they even served fish&chips!), even before entering the door, it was clear that this was an international event, meaning... few or no Japanese people present. Absolutely everything was in English.
On the one hand it's great to "escape" once in a while to spend time with fellow expats, but on the other hand, it's so easy to slip into a habit of only going to these type of events and only ever befriending other expats. There's nothing wrong with that, I guess, but you hear stories of people who move to Tokyo and never even bother learning basic Japanese for every day life, because they get by just fine in their own English speaking bubble... and that irks me quite a bit. I'm not saying that this applies to any of the people at this event, I just feel wary of these type of events for this reason.
In any case, I met up with my translator friend and her husband, we found us a nice back row seat, and ended up in this official picture from the event (can you spot us? We're blurry)!
This must have been taken during the first talk, which was very entertaining! Though the title was a little misleading. Or he just never got around to talking about the why. He basically presented a bunch of hilarious clips from obscure films, and talked about his own criteria for a "bad" film that's also good (for all the wrong reasons).
One of the clips he screened was a long sequence from Deadfall, a Nicolas Cage film I'd never heard about before, but that I definitely want to track down now. Holy hell, what a mess.
Unfortunately, this was the only presenter without a twitter. He seemed like the kind of guy who could have recommended cinemas or other film related events in the city....
When the second presenter started talking, it got very technical very fast, and though learning about space mining is very interesting, it's not really a burning passion of mine. Nor was it that entertaining, so the setting seemed really off for this type of presentation.
I was worried I'd feel this way about the event beforehand, but the first talk was really entertaining, so that made me hopeful about the rest living up to the standards he set.
It was a fun enough night out, but I had pictured it as something a little different. Maybe I've just become too accustomed to No Such Thing As The News and their highly entertaining way of presenting weird facts and nerdy trivia.
I'll keep my eye on Nerd Nite's schedule, if something interesting pops up, I'll drop by again! This time was a bit of a miss, I guess, but it has inspired me to go hunt down more trashy/obscure films, so that's something!