Wednesday, 2/19/2014
Doors at 7 pm, show at 8
Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell St @Van Ness
$8, all ages – Get tickets here
eSports, Staph, and Shep: Aren’t you at least a little intrigued by this month’s grab-bag, and not just for the alluring alliteration? We heart a motley crew of topics here at NNSF, especially if they’re muddled with the Rickshaw Stop’s stiff quaffs, mixed with interludes of ditties on vinyl, and put forth by experts and amateurs (in the purest sense of the word) alike. So, come, be educated about professional gaming by a games user researcher, grab the Staph of life with a microbial mentor, and relive a classic détournement with a Night Person. Be there and be square!
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“Let’s Get Ready to Microooooooo (Why I Love eSports and You Should, Too)” by Omid Farivar
Did you know people are playing video games for money and fans watched an average of 12 billion minutes of content every month in 2013? How about the international tournament where the prize purse exceeded $2.8 million? And viewership, prize money, and mainstream attention are steadily increasing as more professional gamers emerge. Come join the f(o)ray, as a games user researcher explores the professional competitive gaming scene and its fans. Gamers expected and non-gamers oh-so-encouraged to attend.
Omid is a games user researcher at KIXEYE, graduated from U. Michigan with his MA in Information/HCI in 2012, and will crush you at any rhythm game ever.
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“Staphylococcus aureus: Making a Living (And Sometimes a Killing) in the Skin” by Lauren Popov
Have you or someone you know ever had a Staph infection? S. aureus is both a common, peaceful member of the bacterial community living in your skin and a dangerous, disease-causing pathogen. So how does Staph decide to up the ante and turn into an infection? And why is that infection sometimes so alarmingly intractable? In this talk, we’ll take the viewpoint of the bacteria and explore the challenges it faces in its quest to call your body its home.
Lauren is a PhD candidate at the Stanford School of Medicine in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. When she’s not experimenting in lab, she can be found at parties, preaching the tipsy gospel of our astounding microbial world.
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“Revenge of the Night People! Culture-Jamming at 3 a.m.” by David Grosof
In 1955 a 30-something white guy from the “howling darkness of the great American Midwest” came to New York City to work in entertainment. Within three years he had found an audience for improv radio storytelling, created flash mobs, helped crowd-source Cassavetes’s first film, and pulled off a magnificent literary hoax with his loyal audience who listened, in bed, late at night, and wondered What It All Meant. Before Negativland, This American Life, Indiegogo, and @Horse_ebooks, there was Shep. Find out about culture jamming, 1950s-style.
David is one of the Night People, second-gen. He listens to waaay too much radio.
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With: Alpha Bravo, who’ll be spinning tunes specially selected for the presenters’ themes. Follow the setlist on Twitter @djalphabravo.
And: Kevin & Gail’s Chili Palace, who’ll be serving delicious hot chili upstairs.