Nerds

Who needs varsity-sports stardom when you can shoot fireballs from your fingertips? As a teenager, playing the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons gave me a vicarious sense of mastery over my world, even if that world was imaginary. Fighting orcs was preferable to taking on the jocks who taunted me during gym class. Unfortunately, my obsession with D&D also branded me a geek. But since the 1980s, so-called geek activities have gone more mainstream. Computers are ubiquitous (even if we have to call the Geek Squad to troubleshoot them)

"Project X" follows one wild night as a group of high school outcasts throw an epic bash, one they hope will make them popular. Watching other people getting a little out of hand on screen makes you wish you could be there, too — you can enjoy yourself vicariously without suffering through a hangover the next day. Here's a look at five great movie parties. You don't even have to RSVP — just come as you are: — "Animal House" (1978): It is, of course, the gold standard.

CAMBRIDGE - Apparently, not even the advent of state-of-the-art interactive games like "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero" could stifle the not-so-humble hopes of software engineers dreaming of rock 'n' roll glory. This hypothesis was tested and proven Tuesday night in a controlled environment - namely, the downstairs confines of the Middle East - and several conclusions could be gleaned from the experiment. One was that tech nerds ("nerds" being the self-description of choice among the frantically text-messaging audience)

Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key, late of "MADtv," recently fielded questions at the Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, Calif. Below are excerpts from a discussion of their new Comedy Central series, "Key & Peele," premiering tonight at 10:30. Q. Why did you decide to make the show part skit and part stand-up? PEELE: We've done sketch before, but we just felt that there needed to be some kind of connection to introduce us to the world . . . and certainly that's what worked for [Dave]

As part of the ongoing culture war between aesthetes and vulgarians, the mind and the body, the snooty arbiters of taste and the roaring, belching marketplace, critics were not granted a preview screening of "The Benchwarmers. " This total bypass of the organs of discrimination is a growing phenomenon; the studios ( Sony , in this case) apparently think it worthwhile to sacrifice the publicity of a few reviews for the chance to make some money before audiences discover how terrible a given movie is. And so it gives me a perverse pleasure to announce that "The Benchwarmers" is not...

"Project X" follows one wild night as a group of high school outcasts throw an epic bash, one they hope will make them popular. Watching other people getting a little out of hand on screen makes you wish you could be there, too — you can enjoy yourself vicariously without suffering through a hangover the next day. Here's a look at five great movie parties. You don't even have to RSVP — just come as you are: — "Animal House" (1978): It is, of course, the gold standard.

Even a genius can mess up. Bill Gates was a brilliant technologist when he cofounded Microsoft , but as he guided it to greatness in both size and historical consequence, he blundered. He terrorized underlings with his temper and parceled out praise like Scrooge gave to charity. Only the lash inspired the necessary aggressiveness to beat the competition, he thought. Just how wrong he was became clear when the government brought antitrust charges against Microsoft in 1998.

PRETTY IN PINK (Comcast Movies and Events) Rich kid Andrew McCarthy asks working-class Molly Ringwald to the prom. But will he back out under peer pressure? That’s the crux of this mostly appealing outing, which has plastic moments, but also makes contact with believable feelings. (PG-13; runs through Nov. 13) REVENGE OF THE NERDS (Comcast Movies and Events) Gross but funny, this is the first of the “Animal House’’ spinoffs worth anything.

Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key, late of "MADtv," recently fielded questions at the Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, Calif. Below are excerpts from a discussion of their new Comedy Central series, "Key & Peele," premiering tonight at 10:30. Q. Why did you decide to make the show part skit and part stand-up? PEELE: We've done sketch before, but we just felt that there needed to be some kind of connection to introduce us to the world . . . and certainly that's what worked for [Dave]

The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists , By Neil Strauss, Regan Books, 464 pp., $28.95 The thing about pickup artists is that they usually don't know how to put women down. They drop them, although the ladies in Neil Strauss's new book about conquering the fairer sex aren't as fragile as the dudes scheming their way into their beds. Strauss used to cover rock music culture as a reporter for The New York Times. This book, "The Game," is his account of two years he spent after leaving the paper's staff learning how to seduce and, on occasion,...

Excerpts from the Innovation Economy blog. Boston's Innovation District will get a new building next year, the Boston Innovation Center, that could become the neighborhood's hub. City officials nudging the project along seem to hope it will develop into something like Microsoft's New England Research & Development Center (NERD), which hosts dozens of community events each week in Kendall Square in Cambridge. "We're not quite ready to talk about it," said real estate developer John Hynes of Boston Global Investors; his company is building the Seaport Square project, which will include...

The English actor and comedian Simon Pegg has impeccable credentials as a nerd. He co-wrote and starred in "Shaun of the Dead," which managed to fuse zombie horror with romantic comedy, and then followed it up with send-ups of the action genre ("Hot Fuzz") and science fiction ("Paul"). He even played Scotty in the "Star Trek" reboot. With good reason, he calls his new memoir, "Nerd Do Well. " But when it comes to word-nerdery, Pegg would do well to check his facts. In interviews about the book, Pegg has explained the title as a play on the etymology of nerd . Last month on...

The side project of superstar producers the Neptunes makes a stark departure from its hot mess of grinding funk-rock on this often disappointing mixed bag. On “Nothing,’’ the trio, featuring Pharrell, moves toward a more horn-laced R&B vein. While mostly exploring soul here, the band also nods to pop and adds in hints of its old style. The record, the group’s fourth, was delayed multiple times; many of these tracks end up sounding fussy and lacking in the immediacy of N.E.R.D.’s best work.

PRETTY IN PINK (Comcast Movies and Events) Rich kid Andrew McCarthy asks working-class Molly Ringwald to the prom. But will he back out under peer pressure? That’s the crux of this mostly appealing outing, which has plastic moments, but also makes contact with believable feelings. (PG-13; runs through Nov. 13) REVENGE OF THE NERDS (Comcast Movies and Events) Gross but funny, this is the first of the “Animal House’’ spinoffs worth anything.

American Nerd: The Story of My People By Benjamin Nugent Scribner, 224 pp., $20Of the myriad changes that occurred in American society in the late 20th century, perhaps none was so surprising and subtle as the shift toward partial acceptance - and even occasional celebration - of the American nerd. From the late 19th century onward, it was more or less accepted that the ideal purpose of American education and parenting was to produce athletic, popular young men and women, the sort who end up in business, law, or politics.

Who needs varsity-sports stardom when you can shoot fireballs from your fingertips? As a teenager, playing the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons gave me a vicarious sense of mastery over my world, even if that world was imaginary. Fighting orcs was preferable to taking on the jocks who taunted me during gym class. Unfortunately, my obsession with D&D also branded me a geek. But since the 1980s, so-called geek activities have gone more mainstream. Computers are ubiquitous (even if we have to call the Geek Squad to troubleshoot them)

The English actor and comedian Simon Pegg has impeccable credentials as a nerd. He co-wrote and starred in "Shaun of the Dead," which managed to fuse zombie horror with romantic comedy, and then followed it up with send-ups of the action genre ("Hot Fuzz") and science fiction ("Paul"). He even played Scotty in the "Star Trek" reboot. With good reason, he calls his new memoir, "Nerd Do Well. " But when it comes to word-nerdery, Pegg would do well to check his facts. In interviews about the book, Pegg has explained the title as a play on the etymology of nerd . Last month on the public radio show "The Sound of...

American Nerd: The Story of My People By Benjamin Nugent Scribner, 224 pp., $20Of the myriad changes that occurred in American society in the late 20th century, perhaps none was so surprising and subtle as the shift toward partial acceptance - and even occasional celebration - of the American nerd. From the late 19th century onward, it was more or less accepted that the ideal purpose of American education and parenting was to produce athletic, popular young men and women, the sort who end up in business, law, or politics.

CAMBRIDGE - Apparently, not even the advent of state-of-the-art interactive games like "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero" could stifle the not-so-humble hopes of software engineers dreaming of rock 'n' roll glory. This hypothesis was tested and proven Tuesday night in a controlled environment - namely, the downstairs confines of the Middle East - and several conclusions could be gleaned from the experiment. One was that tech nerds ("nerds" being the self-description of choice among the frantically text-messaging audience)

Every day, all day, we're stalked by puffarazzi, the aggressive hype-bots who shout superlatives in our ears and bully us into drooling anticipation of this movie and that TV show. No surprise, then, that by the time the actual product arrives - in this case, NBC's "Chuck" - you might already be tired of it. Furthermore, that product will rarely be as amazing as "they" say it is. "Chuck," which reaches your TV tonight at 8 on Channel 7 after a summer of hard sell and critical ardor, is a likable new series and not the next "Lost" or even "Heroes.