This past Friday night, Charlie, Dexter345 and I decided to brave the wild streets of Los Angeles and crash attend the 2008 Nerdcore Calendar launch party on Sunset Blvd., conveniently right down the street from my house. Going without CTZ (the proclaimed king of Nerdcore) felt like sheer and utter blasphemy, so the three of us formed a gigantic Voltron-like robot in his shape to honor him in his absence: I was the head, Dexter was the arms, and Charlie held the whole thing together with some surprisingly sexy mechanical limbs. Sadly, when we got to the event we were asked to transform back to mild mannered humans in the fear that a giant CTZ would scare the pretty, robot-fearing ladies. Drat.
Regardless of our boring visages, the night was a big hit, filled with half-naked women, free alcohol, and more horny nerds than you could shake a +4 mace at.
Hit the jump for a summary of our misadventures and check out the gallery for some amazing pictures, courtesy of Charlie and yours truly. (I had to add that I took some of the photos because a handful of them suffered from serious unprofessional glare and I didn’t want you all to think the super talented Charlie was the reason.)
The launch party took place in the back gallery of a pretty cool comic book store that I can’t believe I had never been to before: Meltdown Comics. The place was full of rare graphic novels, awesome comics, and even a figure of a Viking riding a dolphin. Yeah, I know – it was amazing.
When we first walked in we actually didn’t even know where the party was, so we kind of wandered around the shop, looking for any sign of good-looking people in bikinis. Not really to my surprise, Charlie and Dexter ended up spotting some of the scantily-clad patrons and we quickly followed them to our destination.

Unfortunately, nothing too exciting happened at the launch party as it was more of a social event than anything. I was really hoping I could entertain you all with tales of Charlie wrestling a white tiger to the ground or Dexter sword-fighting a pirate, but mostly the night consisted of me drinking Newcastles and talking about how the Ice Flower is the best Mario power-up ever!
Some highlights, though (sans vicious tigers and dastardly pirates):
-The music played at the event was supplied by 8-bit Weapon, a really cool group that performs music using classic videogame soundtracks of the ‘70s and ‘80s. I spoke with them for a little bit and they seemed like really great people.
-The always lovely Jessica Chobot was there to regale us with stories of CES 2008, international hostels, and rape (not hers, just in general). It was magical and made me realize even more how much I love her. Seriously, she is rad.
-I have never been to an event where the hostesses have had giant, full-frontal nude pictures of themselves everywhere. I have to be honest, it made talking to them a little bit of a strange and awkward experience. When they were asking me where I was from and what Web site I worked for I kept wanting to blurt out “vagina!” and “nipples!” instead of the correct “Los Angeles” and “Destructoid.” Ugh. You can’t take me anywhere. Sorry, Niero.
-When the girls signed the calendars, they used puns before they signed their names. Examples: “Dexter, Blame it on the rain! Michelle” for a picture of a girl soaked in a storm; “Charlie, You make me hot! Stephanie” for the picture of a girl shooting fireballs out of her fists. Amazing.

All in all, the event was a good time. But what sealed the deal and made the night officially fun was the rousing game of WarioWare: Smooth Moves we all partook in back at my place afterwards. And by “we” I mean Charlie, Dexter and I, as the girls of Nerdcore definitely seemed to have better things to do.
But between you and me, even though I know she won’t admit it, I could have sworn I saw Miss September’s ears perk up a little once I mentioned that Ice Flower. I knew there had to be at least one true nerd in that saucy bunch.