Nerd Nite SF #16: Special Effects, Beer, and Urbanism

Beer! The city! Tiny spaceships that get blown up! September brings back-to-school back-to-stage and back-to-the-bar, as we hear from experts on practical special effects, the history of beer, and the urban land- and mindscape. Be there and be square!

Fon is a grown man who plays with toys, but he has also built models and props for movies for over 20 years. While CGI snags all the headlines, practical effects are often the best approach, especially if you want something to blow up, burn, or shatter. (Yeah, don't get too attached to your work!) Get a behind-the-scenes look at the present and future of movie practical effects.

Davis is a visual effects veteran who runs his own shop, Fonco Creative; created MORAV; and just released a DVD on professional model-making.

"Worth Its Weight in Gold: A History of Beer" by Yug Varma

While most of us imbibe beer frequently and freely, few of us stop to consider how history has molded it. Beer, in turn, has molded history, celebrated and persecuted in equal measure. It also figures in American history--the migration of early settlers, the War of Independence, witchcraft. Yug takes us through a short but intoxicating journey through beer's history.

Varma is a postdoc in the Fischbach lab at UCSF, where he studies the human microbiome and its interactions with the body.

Urbanism has always had a central place in the imagination. Cities are physical phenomena but are also the arenas for our aspirations and fears. Utopian visions often come with vivid urban plans; real cities are shaped by the collision of the practical and imaginative. Benjamin will examine some of the most interesting episodes in the history of urban form.

Grant is SPUR's Urban Design and Public Realm Program Manager, and an urban form nerd.

Plus: DJ Alpha Bravo selects vinyl cuts to illuminate our presenters' themes.