The Game Dame™

Looking for something to do for this 4th of July weekend that doesn’t involve the lake, rednecks and drunken firecracker fights? Get your butt over to Florida for a Nerd Revolution. On July 4th and 5th, Nerdapalooza Southeast 2008 will take over Orlando‚Äôs Taste Restaurant from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m., featuring more than 30 nerdcore musicians hailing from Canada, United Kingdom, and the United States. Presented by Troma Entertainment and A Comic Shop, headliners for Nerdapalooza include nerdcore founder MC Frontalot, Harry and the Potters, YTCracker, Pixelh8, Random, ZeaLouS1 and Select Start.

In addition to a guaranteed rocking weekend, you can feel all warm and fuzzy inside knowing that all of the proceeds from the event will be donated to the nonprofit organization, Child‚Äôs Play. Created in 2003 by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, this Seattle-based nonprofit organization is dedicated to providing children worldwide with toys, books, movies and video games.

‚ÄúWe are committed to helping Child’s Play beat last year’s donations,‚Äù Nerdapalooza Co-founder John T. Carter said.

Nerd culture has become increasingly popular and the cultural awareness of technology increases bit by bit every day. While it was once ‚Äònerdy‚Äô to own a computer, now it is status quo. ‚ÄúWith the boundaries of what is “nerdy” and what is “normal” continually shifting, we are on the bleeding edge of what is a steadily increasing community,‚Äù Carter said.

Examples of this ‚Äòbleed‚Äô can be seen in mainstream culture today. ‚ÄúThe Kanye West and Daft Punk collaboration is a perfect example,‚Äù Carter said. ‚ÄúThe entire music video is a straight-up tribute to the Akira anime,‚Äù Carter said, referencing the popular anime movie.