“These are not the posters you’re looking for…” But they are! Check out these minimalist poster interpretations of the original Star Wars flicks. Artist Andy Helms really captured the anticipation of battle in these prints for A New

Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Unfortunately these prints are sold out, but check out the art below and tell us what you think!

Source: GeekTyrant

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Sometimes we nerds have to consume more than Coke and Taco Bell as we save the world from strangely electromagnetic villains and mean orcs. So what do we do to get the power-up? We bake. Cupcakes, no less.

justJENNrecipes.com has posted pics and a how-to for the cupcakes she created to show off her stationery at a comic book shop. Naturally, Jenn wanted to go with a superhero theme, so she used fondant icing to create cupcakes bearing Phoenix, Captain America and Superman crests.

It seems cupcakes are spreading wider than syphilis these days, as the dear boyfriend and I even got into the act over the weekend. Our cupcakes were messier than Jenn’s and we didn’t use fondant, but gosh golly, we loved our 1upcakes just the same:

Have you baked something as a testament to your Mario Kart skills? Decorated cookies to look like the early 20th century weapons found in Red Dead Redemption? Tweet your pics to @nerdbastards with the hashtag #NBcakes, and we may feature them in a future post about sweet edible nerd art!

Source: justJENNrecipes.com, via @GuyKawasaki

Super Mario Kart

Admit it – sometimes you drive or bike around town making vrooom-vrooom noises and imagining that there are blue sparks shooting out of your vehicle. Portland, Oregon, is giving you daydreamers a chance to get your Mario Kart on like Donkey Kong.

An unknown artiste has painted Mario Kart items onto the asphalt of Portland’s bike lanes on N. Williams Ave. Bananas, stars and mushrooms are well represented. Anyone want to get a group together to petition for Rainbow Road?

The video below describes the new road decoration. God bless local newscasts.

Source: Geekologie (with a tip from @fnbarrett)

Did you know that you can “officially” smell like Leia and Lando from Star Wars? I’m putting “officially” in quotation marks because while I know that these new colognes are “officially” licensed LucasFilm products, I think they are “officially” stupid and likely “officially” smell like ass.

Ok, maybe they don’t smell like ass.

The “Slave Leia” perfume “includes floral top notes of white peach, lily, bergamot, heliotrope, and raspberry that dry down to a warm sultry mix of cashmere woods, musk, and night-blooming jasmine.”

The “Eau Lando” scent… well, who really cares what it actually smells like when its description tells you “Because a suave pirate-turned-respectable businessman deserves the best the galaxy has to offer – in surroundings, in belongings … and most certainly in female companionship.”

BigBadToyStore.com doesn’t offer a lot of information about the origins of the perfumes, but from the page titles, I’m going to guess that these were giveaways during Celebration V last week. Anyone know for sure?

Source: BigBadToyStore, via ToplessRobot

We hate stereotyping, but honestly, most of us nerds are out of shape (except for maybe our thumbs, what with all the button-mashing they do). Is there anything that appeals to our sci-fi love AND will help us gain greater flexibility? It’s not *real* exercise, is it?

No. There is another.

Star Wars Yoga is the brainchild of Matthew Latkiewicz, a McSweeney’s columnist and fan of the holy (original) trilogy. Latkiewicz took photos of himself doing yoga poses that resemble things from the famous George Lucas myth — TIE fighters, speeder bikes and Wookiees, among them — and used those for a fake marketing proposal for Lucas himself. You can see the “exchange” of emails and ideas on Latkiewicz’s site.

Honestly, it looks like these could easily substitute for any boring yoga poses you may (or probably not) already be doing. Tell you what: try out some Star Wars Yoga poses, take pics of yourself doing so (fully clothed, please!), and send them to us. Maybe we’ll do a follow-up show-and-tell post with the best ones.

It’s a bit of old news (his blog posts about Star Wars Yoga are from 2009), but it’s been making the bored-at-work social media rounds again, so it deserves a fresh mention. Check out a few poses below, and then head to Latkiewicz’s site for the rest.

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Experiencing Daft Punk is like being inside a disco ball of sweaty, primal, helmeted hotness. Thus, it was only a matter of time before someone took the pretty flashing lights and excited faces from that one scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and layered some funky, funky Daft Punk beats over it. Take a gander at the very short Daft Punk of a 3rd Kind below:

Get a feel for the original scene here:

Source: LaughingSquid, via SlashFilm

Is there a Delorean in your future? There may be if you feel like traveling to California and going back in time to 1985. Why would you do such a thing? For the Back to the Future reunion that’s scheduled for this winter, of course!

Now don’t get super-super-duper hyped up yet – there’s been no mention thus far of Michael J. Fox or Christopher Lloyd attending this 25th anniversary shindig that’s happening Nov. 5-12. However, you can hobnob with actors who played notable characters in the trilogy, like Claudia Wells (the first “Jennifer”), Harry Waters Jr. (”Marvin Berry”) and James Tolkan (”Principal Strickland”).

Want more, still? Nerd out with Drew Struzan (poster designer for BTTF and other awesome movies. He also did covers for Star Wars novels.), Kevin Pike (special effect supervisor) and Bob Gale (writer and producer).

Need still more incentive to go? Proceeds from this special event celebrating the 25th anniversary of the first BTTF film will go to Team Fox for Parkinson’s Research. Remember, Michael J. Fox has Parkinson’s Disease, and he’s been adamant about raising funds for research and finding a cure. Fans and staffers are throwing the anniversary event to honor his cause.

All that, PLUS an opportunity to see the Delorean and twirl at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance? Um, if you have the cash, I’d plan a trip. Stat.

Check out the jam-packed event schedule, list of celebrities and other important info at weregoingback.com.

Special thanks to my friend @JimBarnthouse for letting me (and the world) know about this via Facebook!

Great Scott!

Using CliffsNotes is SO 1982; everyone knows that today’s cool kids get their fix of English lit and history by reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Soon, though, you won’t even have to read those — you can just watch the movies. And Abe, especially, will be “epic,” according to the director.

Wait, it will be more than epic. It will be an “epic history lesson.” You know. With vampires. Look what director Timur Blackmambatov told Empire magazine:

It is not a comedy at all – it is a very entertaining, epic history lesson for millions and millions of teenagers.

History lesson. Huh. Ok, then.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter the movie is slated for a 2011 release. The film version of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, directed by David O. Russell and starring Natalie Portman, also will be released next year.

Source: Empire magazine, via FilmDrunk

It’s not often that I try to force-feed design aesthetics to you distinguished readers, but I figured that since Batman is involved, you’ll forgive me this once for not posting about breasts or how Twilight sucks.

Remember the live-action “Batman” tv show of the 60s? Remember those fabulous “POW” and “ZOINKS” screen slides that popped up during the ass-kicking scenes of the Adam West campathon? World Famous Design Junkies, with the help of friends, has collected what seems to be all of them.

Being a design blog, WFDJ concentrates on the perfectly used white space and the simplicity of the two- and three-color cards, but we nerds can revel in the campy goodness of the straight-from-the-comics fonts and the memories of the orchestra’s sharp squeal that accompanied the slides.

Here’s a sampling of some of the batcards. Visit World Famous Design Junkies for the rest!

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The “Lost” series finale gave many of its fans headaches — some would even say more headaches than answers. One of the mysteries left on the island was the Man In Black’s name. Just who was Jacob’s brother before he got all smoke-a-fied?

Jacob’s brother had a lot of fan-given nicknames (Smokey and Esau, for starters), but it turns out that MIB’s name actually was Samuel. After scrutinizing call sheets and looking through the Bible for clues, “Lost” fanatics had already speculated that this might be the case, but there was no confirmation until now.

And how do we know for sure? It’s on a freaking piece of furniture. “Samuel” is on Titus Welliver’s (who played MIB) chair, which is being auctioned off.

Whew! So glad we could solve one of the important mysteries of the island instead of crap like “How did Jacob and Samuel’s mom really get there?” and “Why does the entrance to the island’s glowy hole look like a vagina?”

Now I’m grumpy about the “Lost” finale again. Great. I’m going to watch this fantabulous cat video to feel better.

Source: Slashfilm