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Here’s some good stuff for you this week:

• Congratulations to Helena Bonham Carter for being honored by the Queen as a Commander of the British Empire! Oh HBC, you were already Commander of Our Hearts.
• The release of Mass Effect 3 is in just mere weeks! Squee!
• According to Dan Harmon himself, the Greendale gang will be back in action when Community returns March 15th! Double squee!
• The nominees for the 2011 Nebula Awards have been announced. Among authors in the running are favorites like N. K. Jemisin and China Miéville, Nnedi Okorafor for her much lauded children’s book Akata Witch, and Doctor Who for the “The Doctor’s Wife” episode, penned by Neil Gaiman. Also nominated is Genevieve Valentine for her first novel Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, with cover design and illustrations by a friend of ours, Kiri Moth.
• This Flavorwire literary mixtape for Harriet of Harriet the Spy has us reminiscing on some of our favorite heroines. We’re pretty sure that Harriet would have made an awesome feminist geek herself.
• Mixed feelings about race bending or not, we’re intrigued by the upcoming release of the Hunger Games movie. For the time being, take a peek at the final soundtrack listing for the film.
• Nick Offerman and Diablo Cody collaborating on a movie? Please, tell us more! Our favorite mustachioed one is joining the cast in Cody’s Lamb of God, a film about a sheltered young woman who loses her faith after a plane crash and moves to Las Vegas for a more, shall we say, secular experience.
  

  McGavin as Kolchak

• Scott Pilgrim director Edgar Wright is in talks with Johnny Depp for a new project that sounds spectacular. Wright is hoping to bring The Night Stalker to the big screen, with Depp playing Kolchak, an investigator of the supernatural made famous by Darrin McGavin in the 1970s TV series. Given both Depp’s and Wright’s creative reputations, this might turn out to be a very stylish and fun reboot. Trivia for you: X-Files creator Chris Carter cites Kolchak as one of the chief inspiration for his own series.
• Amanda Seyfrield plays a distraught sister-turned-vigilante in Gone, out in theaters today. We’re hoping for some commentary on how society gaslights women, what with all their irrational emotions and theories, but it also looks promising as a twisty thriller that might deliver some great action and suspense.
• Major props to Doctor Her, a new site solely focusing on dissecting and discussing Doctor Who and its related universe from a feminist perspective.

Maybe that's what the book will really be called?

• We can’t help but be super curious now that J.K. Rowling has signed a book deal with Little, Brown for a new novel. Everyone is being very hush-hush about the project, so all we know for now is that it’s going to be a volume intended for adults.
• We’re still giddy over this Brave teaser, showing just what a badass Merida is going to be. The movie comes out this summer and we can’t waaaaaaait!!!
• Sometimes, a good ending can make a great series even better, and this lunchtime read at io9 had us nodding our heads in agreement.
• Fashionable or not, we love our gadgets and try to keep them safe and sound. The design geek in us especially appreciates the Bloomingdale’s “Medium Laptop Case” from Refinery29.
• Some of us here have been really enjoying listening to Witchazel, the recently released album from actor and comedian Matt Berry (The IT Crowd, Snuff Box). If you like the notion of frolicking in fields of daisies in corduroy wizard robes, singing songs of love lost and gained, while a harpsichord and guitars swell, then you’ll love this album.

What’s on your radar this week?

Check out our previous Geeking Out posts.

We’re livid over the ridiculously unfair BS that was the birth control hearing in DC. It’s so frustrating that we’re almost at a loss for words. These events are like a scary glimpse into a creepy dystopian future people like Margaret Atwood write about.

Now then, onto this week’s other news:

• We want to wish LeVar Burton a very Happy Birthday! The Reading Rainbow host and Star Trek: The Next Generation actor celebrated his 55th birthday yesterday (2/16). Set phasers to we love you!
• At the Border House, How Not to Write About a Transgendered Person is a must-read. The author of the guest post, Anna Anthropy, will have a book out soon, taking apart gaming culture and the video game industry from a perspective outside of the cultural mainstream.
• This is a great story on female programmers, making a space for themselves and getting more women involved in a male-dominated industry.  It’s disappointing and incredibly telling, however, that the “More Links from Around the Web” section at the bottom (which must be meant as a “Related Stories” kind of feature) is all about sexy cosplay, beauty tips, and titillating advertising.
• The National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian is getting a major update, in order to better reflect the reality of Native American history and community. As it is, we seem to be taught that Native Americans were like a magical race that lived off the land, contributed little to the world at large, and then died out. The improvements aim to portray a living community and culture that had a major effect on the world, and is still very much part of the US.
• Like everyone else, our heads are exploding from the idea of a Doctor Who/Star Trek: TNG crossover comic book. It’s a mixture of nervous excitement waiting for a dream come true, and a queasy feeling of dread over a possible disaster. Only time (har har) will tell.
• The international trailer for The Amazing Spiderman was released the other day. Most of us are old enough to remember the 2002 version and it feels so recent that a reboot seems almost absurd. However, the trailer is pretty good, so our interest is sparked. At any rate, you can’t go wrong with Emma Stone.
• There’s also the trailer for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter! Battle axes, vampire slaying, and stove pipe hats? Yeah you classy, Abe!
  

  Rudolph as Donatella Versace

• We can’t wait for Maya Rudolph to host this week’s Saturday Night Live!
• The owners of the Alamo Drafthouse movie theaters in Austin, TX, made famous last year for their clever reprimand of an obnoxious movie goer, are hoping to turn a long boarded up theater in San Francisco’s Mission District into a Drafthouse. If all goes to plan, locals will be able to enjoy late night cult film marathons while drinking beer and eating yummy foods in a Deco theater.
• Out this week is Studio Gibli’s The Secret World of Arietty. Based on the classic children’s book, The Borrowers, the film tells the story of the 4″ tall Clock family, who live their lives by borrowing the little bits and pieces that people won’t miss. Their world is turned upside down when their daughter, Arietty, is discovered by a human.
• Battlestar Galactica coasters!

This is not so great:

You'll know where to find us

• Waking up to an e-mail with the subject line “Michael Bay to Reboot Ninja Turtles” is reason enough to go back to sleep, dreaming of a better world.
• Laughing at this scathing review of House of Lies, which seems to completely miss the point of the show. If we wanted to watch A Very Special Episode of television every week starring generally good (read: boring) people, we’d go back to the 90s and cue up 7th Heaven.
• CBS has cast Johnny Lee Miller in the pilot for its new series, Elementary, a modern day re-imagining of the Sherlock Holmes stories… Really, now?  Miller and the star of BBC’s Sherlock, Benedict Cumberbatch, worked together on Danny Boyle’s stage production of Frankenstein. This is all just a little bit too weird, and BBC producers clearly aren’t pleased.

What’s on your radar this week?

Check out our previous Geeking Out posts.

From our bookshelf:

• Jen is reading Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero’s Visions of Hell on Earth by Kim Paffenroth. This is required academic reading!
• Having just finished Card’s Xenocide, Lois is starting on Children of the Mind. She’s also picked up Android Karenina. Let’s see if one of the world’s greatest stories translates well into steampunk. There’s nothing worse than lazy crossovers.
• Tanya’s in the mood for fairy tales re-imagined lately, starting on Helen Oyeyemi‘s Mr. Fox, the Bluebeard archetype re-imagined, and the anthology My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me, edited by Kate Bernheimer.

We’re excited about:

• The biggest news for us here at Geekquality is the fact that the dates for this year’s Geek Girl Con have just been announced. Last year’s convention was a source of inspiration for our own project and also where most of GQ editors met in person for the first time. You’d be nuts to miss it in Seattle, August 11 and 12.

• Walking Dead returns from its hiatus on February 12th. Be prepared for a lot of FEELINGS from some of us here.
• Neil Gaiman won SFX Outstanding Scriptwriting award for “The Doctor’s Wife”, an episode he wrote for season 6 of Doctor Who. He should also get an award for Outstanding Cutest Acceptance Video Ever!

Cover of Le Transperceneige

• We hear tell that two-time Academy Award nominee (and one of Moxie’s favorite actors) Viola Davis has been cast in the film adaptation of the popular YA novel Beautiful Creatures, a Southern gothic tale of teen witches and romance. This comes on the heels of her wrapping up filming for the other classic sci-fi book turned movie, Ender’s Game. Davis is on the rise, and we couldn’t be happier.
• Davis’ co-star in The Help and another Academy Award nominee, Octavia Spencer, has just joined the cast of Snow Piercer, a sci-fi thriller based on French comic book Le Transperceneige, being directed by Bong Joon-Ho (The Host). The cast also includes Kang-Ho Song, Chris Evans and Tilda Swinton, among others. Waiting for the movie’s tentative 2013 release will seem an eternity!
• We are really pleased with how well a very important, but politically charged, issue was handled in the recent issue of Dark Horse’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The topic is tackled in a responsible and women-friendly way.

The Final Frontier suite at The Roxbury Motel

• Have you ever wanted to sleep in Oz? Have a soak in a tub inside Barbara Eden’s genie bottle? Get your groove on, on the Enterprise? Well now you can at The Roxbury Motel (Roxbury, NY). This “boutique motel” was the brainchild of two NYC creatives, and it is a sight to behold. Touted on The Today Show and in NatGeo, The Roxbury is not the first thing you think of when you think “motel”. This renovated property, has less than 30 rooms, but each is comfortable and luxe, with a unique theme. Sounds like the perfect place for a geeky getaway.

We're in a collective swoon

• Jen has every right to gloat that she snagged these now sold out Doctor Who Valentines at last year’s Geek Girl Con. Anyone who is the lucky recipient of one of these better feel mighty special. Lois, on the other hand, is aflutter over some of these special gifts, like the necklace with R. Kelly’s lyrics on it.
• This marimba interpretation of Ocarina of Time: Gerudo Valley from Legend of Zelda has got us giggling with excitement.

We’re not so sure about:

Oh, Padma...

• One of the only prominent women of color being written out of the webcomic Questionable Content. Come back, Padma! We still ship you with Marten!
• The schedule listing for Image Comics Expo in Oakland later this month has been announced. We’re happy that the programming includes a Womanthology panel, as well as the presence of writer and comedian Blair Butler and comic book artist Fiona Staples. However, it’s disappointing that this is pretty much the extent of women’s presence at the expo. Not so much a statement against Image comics, who do produce awesome lit, but just an ongoing grumble against the comic book industry and conventions. Sigh.

Check out our previous Geeking Out posts.

The first installment of a weekly feature, where we will regularly share with you books, films, games and TV shows we’re consuming, as well as things we’re looking forward to and things that we’re not sure about, coming down the pipeline.

Geekquality is currently reading:

A page from Scarlet Traces: The Great Game

• Good Omens, co-written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. A MUST for any fan of either author.
• The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander, a book that presents some challenging ideas on breaking down the barriers we put in our own way.
• Scarlet Traces: The Great Game, a comic book by Ian Edginton with art by D’Israeli. It’s a “dieselpunk” sequel to War of the Worlds with stunning art and a fantastic heroine.
• Rebecca Ore‘s Outlaw School. It’s set in a dystopian America, not too far into the future. The main character, in order to get off drugs prescribed to make her “fit in”, has to either get pregnant, or join a cult that will replace one of her eyes with a cybernetic one, linked up into a government system.
• Huntress, Malinda Lo‘s prequel to her novel Ash, both books a refreshing addition to YA shelves everywhere, subverting typical “coming of age” fairy tale tropes.
• The Ender’s Game saga. Lois is currently about 65% into Xenocide.
• Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, a homage both to classic cyberpunk novels and 80’s nostalgia. Bonus: the audio-book is narrated by Wil Wheaton!

We’re excited about:

• It was recently announced that a Monty Python reunion film, Absolutely Anything, is in development! Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam and John Cleese are on board, and the movie is going to be a sci-fi comedy.
• Shameless and House of Lies on Showtime are both awesome shows with great casts that are examining some fairly complex topics in their own way. Definitely worth checking out!
• Taylor Swift not playing Eponine in the upcoming Les Mis movie. Thank you baby Jesus!

Radcliffe ain't 'fraid of no ghost

• Woman in Black this weekend. A period piece AND a horror flick: best of both worlds.
• Key and Peele, a new sketch show on Comedy Central starring Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. The premiere made it look promising!
• Comic Book Men on AMC. Interested to see how they handle the topic of adult geekery, and even more interested in the general direction AMC seems to be taking recently, gearing their programming to the nerdier spectrum.
• Bump Betty and Veronica. Archie’s endgame love is bodacious bassist Valerie Smith (of Josie And The Pussycats fame), in Archie #633 the comic will reveal a future where the two tie the knot (and have a cute baby girl who can totally shred). Check out Comics Alliance to find out who else got hitched (hint: it’s not Jughead).

YES PLEASE!

• The nerdy nail polish colours from NerdLacquer. A lot of the colors are currently on back order but will soon be restocked. We’re really excited about the Mad Man With a Box collection.
• Cracked.com’s latest truth bomb re: women in comics
• Just released, the 50th Anniversary edition of A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle! Next week, look for Alice Marie’s special piece on how the seminal book opened her mind to the world of science fiction and girl heroes.

We’re not so sure about:

We could get behind *this* Watchmen prequel

• Rob on CBS. We haven’t watched the show yet, but the reviews aren’t very encouraging. We’ll have to wait a bit before the final verdict, but tired Chicano jokes are certainly not the way into our hearts.
• DC’s upcoming Watchmen prequel comics. This could be a cool move, but it could also be utterly disastrous. DC might do well to observe the rule of thumb with regard to revisiting old media: If it ain’t broke, don’t try to break it. (Ahem, Napoleon Dynamite series…)
• The new Mass Effect novel, Mass Effect: Deception, is written by William C. Dietz instead of Drew Karpyshyn, who wrote the previous three novels and is also one of the lead writers for the game. The novel is full of glaring continuity and lore errors which have been painstakingly documented by fans in a huge Google doc.