Anime Expo 2012 is only a couple of weeks away and again, we encourage attendees to check out Brands Boutique inside the Exhibit Hall this year! Brands Boutique will be selling all kinds of cute and unique merchandise at their booth from eleven different indie, local brands. We interviewed Shing from Marlow the Monster last week and now we are happy to introduce you to Funkey Monkey.

Just as the name suggest, Funkey Monkey sells clothing, accessories, stationary, etc. with their monkey character at the center stage of all their design. Read our interview with them to get to know them better.

— — —

How did Funkey Monkey came to be and what is the inspiration behind the monkey?
FUNKEY MONKEY: Funkey Monkey was created a while ago to capture the concept of fun and what it means to be happy. The brand is inspired by laughter, happy memories, and the monkey is really about enjoying the best moments of life. It’s our dedication to friends, love, and that one person in everyone’s life who is so full of energy and brings fun to every outing!

The Brands Boutique will have pop up shop at Anime Expo on June 29-July 2, 2012 selling merchandise from 10 different and local indie brands in California. One of them is Marlowe the Monster by my friend, Shing Yin Khor, which will be available at the shop this year.

www.sawdustbear.com

How can you not love her work? These monsters are so adorable and she puts in a lot of work with all her individual pieces. They’re all handmade by her, baby, make no mistake. She not only sculpts them, she paints them and she publishes books and comics. Yes, she is one productive and busy lady — which is why I appreciate it when she takes time to eat ramen with me once in awhile!

Here’s an interview with Shing and her participation this year with Brands Boutique.

Get ready for May 4^th cause the Fourth is strong with The Avengers.

Greetings readers! Sabina AKA Wicked Phoenix here, sending her first transmission for Defective Geeks! A couple weeks ago, I got invited to The Avengers press junket and after writing my feature for Campus Circle, I found that there was so much material to share and geek out over with y’all.

Where to begin?

Ah-yes Robert Downey Jr. That man is Tony Stark or is Tony Stark just an extension or RDJ? He totally pulled an “I am Iron Man” moment when he announced, “Yeah, and not to keep you guessing, but we’re actually not done shooting. We are shooting one more scene tonight. Not kidding.”

That’s not exactly a spoiler, but since the premiere cut of the Avengers clocked in at roughly two-hours and a half, this news definitely a surprise to hear. During the second panel Joss was asked if Robert was kidding and he replied, “He’s Robert.  Of course, he’s kidding.”  (But apparently-NOT.  Many other news sources have confirmed that they did shoot an additional scene.)

Recently I was lucky enough to interview up and coming Canadian actor Lisa Berry. She has appeared on shows such as Lost Girl, Nikita, and The Firm and is currently filming a feature called The Colony starring Laurence Fishburne. For the record, Lisa Berry is kind of awesome. Not only is she a talented actor, she is also down to earth and a bonafide geek! It was really hard for me to stay quiet while she was answering my questions just because I so badly wanted to discuss geekery with her.

In this interview Berry talks about how she got into acting, her favorite genres, how she wants to be the next Wonder Woman, her advice for aspiring actors, and proves that she is an actor you ought to keep an eye on.

What inspired you to become an actor?

LISA BERRY: I don’t know! Isn’t that hilarious? I didn’t initially start out as an actor, I was a make-up artist. I was always behind the scenes and I just always enjoyed being a charismatic kind of person and somebody had told me that you could make a living doing it. When I was 22, a couple of my friends had asked if I could go to a Lion King open call audition and I said, “I’m not an actor, I’m not going to get that.” I somehow made it through to the final callback. It became a possibility and I saw that for the first time. Then, I went to theater school to see if I could follow this dream all the way through to the end, so it kind of just happened, for lack of a better word. It wasn’t a case of “I wanted to be an actor”, it was more like “I would love the idea of it”, but I didn’t think it was possible and then through the good grace of being around some fantastic people who believe that dreams can come true, I gave it a shot and it’s worked out well.

During Geek Girl Con 2011, Shing of Sawdust Bear Press and I had the pleasure of sitting next to Ada’s Technical Books inside the exhibit hall. The owner, Danielle Hulton, was at the convention for the entire weekend and I found it really cool that she owned her own bookstore! I think most of us book lovin’ people have had dreams about spending the rest of our lives surrounded by books.

Below, I interview Danielle on her fabulous Lady Geek life as a bookstore owner in Seattle!

What makes Ada’s Technical Books different from the rest of independent bookstores? Where did the name come from?

Annie Violet and I found each other on Twitter. When I first saw her Twitter profile, I admit it – I almost dismissed her as a spambot mostly because she had a super sexy photo on her profile (sorry Annie! Don’t judge by their profile photos, kids). But something made me take a pause and I decided to read a bulk of what she had written on Twitter. I quickly realized this girl was one of my Lady Geek sisters.

I  try to not judge other women who work in a certain industry. I judge them by their character and Annie and I have always had pleasant Twitter encounters – like getting excited about The Hobbit trailer. In other words, she’s a sweetheart. A Lady Geek has every right to take her clothes off in front of the camera and still be allowed to read the Lord of the Rings between takes. Dammit. Can’t blame a lady when she has a cute bum that the world needs to see. In this interview, Annie talks about the dichotomy of her work as a model and her nerdy side.

Read our interview below.

Since I can’t get enough Degrassi: The Next Generation, I thought I would interview Paula Brancati who played Jane, a rebellious feminist in seasons 7 and on. Now to be honest I kinda stopped watching around season 5 and 6 as I got engulfed in life and had no cable for a couple years. But after talking to Paula about the last couple seasons, she made me realize I missed some of the best parts of Degrassi. Now, I am on a Degrassi kick catching up (through Netflix) on episodes and loving it.

In addition to being on Degrassi, Paula told me of all the wonderful things going on in her life; from singing on the road with her brother, starring in plays and musicals, and of course making movies. Most recently she released a movie on ABC Family called Desperately Seeking Santa, which if you did not get to see over the holidays you can now view on Hulu.  Later on in the Interview we talk briefly of a independent film she is starring in called Moon Point, directed by Sean Cisterna, which sadly is not yet in the States but that’s another blog. ;)

So, let’s get to know this fun bubbly talented young woman, shall we.

Could you describe to us your character Jane, what she is like in the show for those fans that never watched the later Degrassi episodes?

Totally, well I am off the show now but Jane came in at the beginning of season 7.  I was on the show for three years and then we sort of did this final Degrassi Takes Manhattan. I think it was called “The Heat Is On” in the states? It was called  Degrassi Takes Manhattan: The Heat is On  for you guys and that was my characters closing story line. We got to go shoot in New York and that was very cool.

Even though I am the SPACE Pirate Queen, I can still appreciate the music of land pirates. Wolfbeard O’ Brady, the captain of The Dread Crew of Oddwood, took time out of sailing the high seas and making music to answer questions for our blog. Gizzy B and I have seen this band perform a couple of years ago and their fun energy have always made an impression on me. They were out of control, stomping around and played great pirate-y music. Imagine my surprise when one of the band members has been reading our blog all this time! I was happy to do an interview with them. Besides, us pirates have to stick together.

These pirates are not only hot but they make great music. Take a listen on their Facebook.

Where did the name of the band come from? What is the origin story of  The Dread Crew of Oddwood? Tell me more about each of your pirate tales and history.

The Dread Tale of Oddwood begins in 1735, a time of endless bounty and exploration. It’s a long and adventurous epic that tells of how the Dread Crew was brought to the present through temporal rifts in the Atlantic Ocean, and how we started playing our music for American audiences in 2008. While it is too long to recount here in explicit detail, you can read the whole story on our website.